Porto Belo had 27,688 residents in the 2022 Census, according to IBGE, Brazil's statistics office. A single neighborhood in town, VivaPark, was planned to house about 35,000 people in its first three phases alone, according to its developers.
That difference in scale explains both the interest and the care needed by anyone thinking of buying there.
What a planned neighborhood is
A planned neighborhood (bairro planejado) is a piece of city designed before it is built. A company buys a large area, draws up the complete urban plan (streets, blocks, lots, parks, shops and facilities such as schools) and sells or develops it gradually. The buyer moves into a place that follows a plan, not an isolated plot.
In the US the closest idea is a master-planned community, but Brazilian law has different formats for this kind of project, and the format changes daily life:
- open neighborhood, with public streets and squares and free access, like any other part of the city;
- controlled-access subdivision (loteamento de acesso controlado), provided for in Law 6,766/1979 since 2017, in which the municipality regulates entry control but cannot block identified pedestrians and drivers (article 2, § 8);
- lot condominium (condomínio de lotes), under article 1,358-A of the Civil Code, in which streets and common areas belong to the owners, closer to a gated community.
In any format, the project usually has its own building rules, such as setbacks, height and permitted uses. In subdivisions, contracts must state these "conventional urban restrictions" (article 26, item VII, of Law 6,766). They apply together with the city's master plan.
For buyers, the advantage of the model is the order of things. Infrastructure usually comes before houses and buildings: streets, drainage, lighting and parks are finished first, and the homes come later.
The drawback is time. A large neighborhood is only complete when every phase is built and occupied, and that can take decades.
Who develops VivaPark and what already exists
VivaPark Porto Belo is a project of Vokkan, which presents itself as a master real estate developer on the Santa Catarina coast. The urban design is signed by Jaime Lerner, the architect and urban planner known for the planning of Curitiba, according to Vokkan's website. The company calls the project "Brazil's first park neighborhood".
According to an Exame report of September 27, 2025, it is an open neighborhood, not a gated community. Sales began in October 2020, and the first phase, with the infrastructure, was delivered on October 29, 2023.
What was operating in September 2025
The same report lists what was in operation, with data from the developers:
- Colégio Bom Jesus, a private school opened in February 2025 with 600 students;
- a language school, open sports courts and Rua Viva, a car-free street;
- a food hall with six restaurants;
- four buildings at an advanced stage of construction and more than 90 houses being built.
The developer also highlights about 230,000 square meters of green areas, with two parks with lakes, walking paths and five squares, and a security system with integrated monitoring (Vokkan). The official neighborhood website mentions easy access to the BR-101 highway and to the Navegantes and Florianópolis airports.
A practical difference for beach lovers: the neighborhood sits at the town entrance, on Avenida Governador Celso Ramos, next to the BR-101, not on the beachfront. The buildings and houses for sale in the neighborhood are gathered on the page of off-plan apartments in VivaPark.
What is still planned
Most of VivaPark is yet to be built. According to Exame, the first three phases add up to 1 million square meters of developed land, with a projected total sales value (VGV, the Brazilian measure of a project's potential sales) of R$ 25 billion by 2047.
There is a plan to double the area, to 2 million square meters and more than R$ 50 billion in VGV in future phases.
The same article mentions about 35 developments over the following five years and 80 by 2047.
The neighborhood grows inside a town that already sells a lot. The same report cites Abrainc data, from the Brazilian association of real estate developers, according to which Porto Belo sold 9,100 new residential units in 2024, equal to 25.6% of the Santa Catarina total.
The price per square meter
Exame published, with September 2025 data attributed to the project, an average price per square meter of R$ 4,000 for lots, R$ 17,000 for three-suite apartments and up to R$ 21,000 for studios.
At the Central Bank PTAX selling rate of October 2, 2026 (R$ 5.2238 per dollar), R$ 17,000 is roughly US$ 3,250 per square meter. The report also cites 250.9% appreciation of the lots since launch, a figure from the developer itself.
As an independent reference, the FipeZAP Index for September 2026 shows an average of R$ 15,340 per square meter in Itapema and R$ 15,369 in Balneário Camboriú.
The bases differ (listings of homes in general versus launch price tables) and so do the dates, but the comparison shows that the neighborhood is no longer the cheap option in the region. Porto Belo is not part of the index.
Who it makes sense for, and the risks
VivaPark tends to suit people who value neighborhood infrastructure: parks, school, shops and security organized in one plan. It makes sense for families who want a walkable routine inside the neighborhood and for long-horizon investors willing to follow the place as it forms.
It suits less well anyone who wants to step out onto the sand or needs a low entry price.
Living there or renting out
For living, the neighborhood's argument is routine: school, park, shops and courts in the same place, with security organized by the developer. Visit on an ordinary day, outside the summer season, to see real activity.
For renting out, the math is different. Summer tourists usually look for the beach, and the neighborhood is away from the beachfront.
Vacation rental demand tends to differ from that of a beachfront building, and monthly rental demand depends on people who come to work and study in the region. Neither income is guaranteed, and new supply in the neighborhood itself competes with your unit.
The risks of buying in a neighborhood in formation are concrete:
- construction around you for years, with noise and neighboring sites as the phases advance;
- large future supply, with dozens of planned developments competing with your unit when you resell or rent;
- dependence on the schedule of the master developer and of each partner developer, each with its own deadline and contract;
- announced services that may take longer than expected to open;
- neighborhood costs, such as a possible association or maintenance fee, which you need to ask about beforehand.
Each VivaPark building has a responsible developer (incorporadora). The checks for any off-plan purchase in Brazil still apply, building by building: the registered development filing at the property registry (registro de incorporação), the segregated-assets regime that ring-fences the project (patrimônio de afetação), the delivery date and the contract summary sheet.
Early-stage launches need extra attention, explained in our article on pre-launch real estate in Brazil.
Questions to ask before buying
Some questions are specific to planned neighborhoods and rarely appear in sales material:
- which phase of the plan the building or lot belongs to, and what is planned for the land around it;
- the maximum height allowed on neighboring lots, because today's view may become another building's facade tomorrow;
- which building and use rules apply to the lot and who approves designs;
- whether there is a residents' association or neighborhood maintenance fee, and how much it costs;
- which services already operate and which still depend on an opening.
Get the answers in writing, ideally with the urban plan map and the registration of the subdivision or development.
How to evaluate a property in VivaPark
The opening question was what it means to buy in a neighborhood that will have more residents than the whole town has today. The answer: you buy the plan along with the property, and the plan takes decades to complete.
- Separate what already exists from what is planned, always with a date and a source.
- Compare the price table per square meter with other parts of Porto Belo and Itapema.
- Evaluate the building and the developer as you would in any off-plan purchase.
A good exercise for tomorrow is to put a VivaPark unit side by side with two from other parts of town, with price, size, timeline and payment terms. Developments in the rest of town are on the page of off-plan apartments in Porto Belo.
To run that comparison with our specialist, with the price tables on screen, book an online consultation. If you are in Santa Catarina, see the neighborhood and the show unit on an in-person visit, on a weekday, when the routine shows up as it really is.
In a planned neighborhood, the plan is the product, and time is part of the price.
Run the numbersOff-plan or fixed income? Compare the same money in Porto BeloCDI: 13.65% a year (Central Bank of Brazil, 01/10/2026)Open the calculator
