Moving to Sao Paulo - weekly room rentals?

Good luck on that one, this is unheard of here in Brazil. You're going to be facing one option only and that is staying in a hotel or worse still a hostel until you can find an apartment.

Also you should be aware that here in Brazil, by law, rental agreement contracts are for a duration of 30 months. One usually pays a deposit (equal to about 2 months rent) which will be discounted and used as the last months' rental payments when you give notice to vacate. If you break the rental contract during the first 12 months there is a contractual fine equal to the full balance of the remaining rent that you would normally have paid to the end of the 12th month. From the 13th month onward there no longer is a contractual fine.

You will probably need either a guarantor (fiador) who is a Brazilian living in the same city and who owns property; or you will be required to purchase rental insurance which is costly.

In most cases the landlord will pass the property taxes (IPTU) to the tenants to pay.

Depending on the rentals you will probably have to pay condominium fees which is some cases can be almost as expensive as the rent, depending on what is included.

If you're lucky enough to find something that you can rent directly with the property owner, as opposed to going through a realtor (wish is the most common way here) then maybe just maybe you can avoid some of this red tape, but not much.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

Wow... Thanks for the response and the detail!

If someone moving to the city doesn't know anyone there, how do they find a guarantor?

If they're coming here for employment purposes then they can usually get their employer to be their guarantor. Otherwise they are pretty much forced to get rental insurance which is the guarantee.

However, if you are willing to walk the streets looking for signs put up by property owners who are renting out their homes or apartments by themselves without the use of realtors as administrators you might get lucky and find someone who will only require the deposit and not ask for a "fiador". They are rare, but some can be found. This option is certainly more time consuming and involves a lot more work on your part than simply going to a realtor and looking at apartments they have in their administration portfolio, but it can pay off in the end.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team