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Rio’s housing prices spell trouble in paradise
Armed with the Sunday classifieds, I launched what was to become my epic quest for an apartment back in January. I went first to Rio’s showcase neighborhoods: tony, seaside Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon, the ones everyone imagines when they think of fabulous Rio. Perusing the ads, however, it seemed as if an extra zero had been tacked onto the price of every apartment. A studio with a shared toilet on the landing for $1,000 a month? Or $2,750 for a 400-square-foot, one-bedroom on the first floor, apparently with no natural light? Could I be reading this right?
Unfortunately, I was. For the rent I used to pay on my Paris penthouse looking out onto the Eiffel Tower, I found I could get a postage stamp-sized place on the third floor of a down-at-the-heels Ipanema building with a spectacular view — into the neighbor’s bathroom.