Looking Back at Rio in 2026

Here is the year, month by month.

• January. The year opened with 5.1 million people at Réveillon, the best January on record for foreign visitors to Rio state, and the start of the street carnival.
• February. Carnival, with hotels 99% full and Viradouro winning by a tenth of a point. The Rio Open drew about 70,000 to the Jockey Club. Rio state's biggest month ever for foreign arrivals.
• March. The central bank made its first interest rate cut in years. Mayor Eduardo Paes resigned to run for governor, and his deputy, Eduardo Cavaliere, became mayor. Aena won the Galeão airport concession.
• April. The first Rio Fashion Week at Píer Mauá.
• May. Shakira on Copacabana before about two million people. The Superior Court of Justice ruled on short stays in condominiums. The real touched its strongest level of the year.
• June. The one-year countdown to the Women's World Cup on Copacabana.
• July and August. GOL's first direct flight from Rio to New York, and FIFA's match schedule for 2027.
• September. Rock in Rio, ArtRio, Rio Gastronomia and the fifth consecutive rate cut. GOL began flying to Lisbon.
• October. The Festival do Rio, the general elections on October 4 with a presidential runoff on October 25, and Aena taking over Galeão.

Underneath the headlines, the numbers that matter for anyone who owns or wants to own in Rio moved in the same direction: more visitors, higher prices, higher rents, lower rates and a stronger currency. The rest of this piece goes through each of them.

The year started on Copacabana. For the night of December 31, 2025, the city counted more than 5.1 million people across 13 stages, with about 2.6 million on Copacabana. The fireworks lasted about 12 minutes and were fired from 19 barges along the beach, the most ever, and the main stage in front of the Copacabana Palace had Gilberto Gil, Ney Matogrosso, Alcione, Belo, João Gomes, Iza and Alok. Hotels on Copacabana and Leme were 95.59% full that night.

Six weeks later came Carnival. The city projected about eight million revelers over the season, from mid-January to late February, and an economic impact of about R$5.9 billion. Its official street program had about 460 parades with more than six million people. Over the parade nights, hotel occupancy across the city reached 99.02%, with Ipanema and Leblon at 99.75%. The CoStar hotel data for February showed the average daily rate in Rio's hotels up 49.4% on February 2025, partly because Carnival fell in March in 2025, at R$1,312, and R$2,657 on the peak night of February 15. Embratur counted about 110,000 foreign visitors in Rio over the Carnival period.

Viradouro wins

At the Sambódromo, Unidos do Viradouro won the Special Group with 270.0 points, a tenth of a point ahead of Beija-Flor, with a parade titled Pra cima, Ciça!, a tribute to Mestre Ciça, one of carnival's best-known percussion masters. It was Viradouro's fourth title. The results were read on Ash Wednesday, February 18.

For the homes we manage, Réveillon and Carnival are the two weeks that set the tone of the year, and 2026 confirmed what we see every season: the large homes with terraces and pools, close to the beach or with a view of it, are booked first, often a year ahead, and by families and groups who come back. If you are planning for the next ones, our Réveillon guide y Carnival guide have the details, and the 2027 dates are in our 2027 calendar.

Rio de Janeiro state welcomed 2,196,443 foreign tourists in 2025, a record and 43.7% more than the 1,528,133 of 2024, according to Embratur figures reported in January 2026. Brazil as a whole received 9.29 million, also a record. The biggest sources for Rio were Argentina, with 787,229 visitors, Chile with 359,705, the United States with 214,795, Uruguay with 100,476 and France with 86,806.

2026 ran ahead of it from the first month. January 2026 brought 289,255 foreign visitors to the state, 17% more than January 2025 and the best January on record, according to the state government, which set itself a target of 2.5 million for the year. February, with Carnival, was the biggest month on record, with 310,654 visitors. By the end of June the state had counted 1,337,950 foreign visitors, 15.6% more than in the first half of 2025. Counting arrivals by air alone, about 1.6 million came from January to August, 14% more than a year earlier, against 11% for Brazil as a whole.

Where they come from

Argentina and Chile dominate, as they have for years: summer in Rio is a short flight from Buenos Aires and Santiago. The order of the next markets in 2026, by air, was the United States, France, Uruguay, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Peru, Portugal and Germany. Across Brazil, visitors from China rose 73% in the first eight months of the year, from a small base. Brazil as a whole received 6.45 million foreign visitors from January to August 2026, and Embratur estimated their spending at about US$7 billion, matching in eight months the arrivals of the whole of 2016, the year of the Rio Olympics.

For the homes we manage, the mix matters. In our experience, guests from the United States and Europe tend to stay longer and book further ahead, often for a week or two, and they favor the larger homes. Guests from Argentina and Chile come more often and at shorter notice, and fill the long weekends and the summer.

On Saturday, May 2, 2026, Shakira played a free concert on Copacabana beach, the third in the city's Todo Mundo no Rio series after Madonna in 2024 and Lady Gaga in 2025. Riotur put the crowd at about two million people. She was joined on stage by Anitta, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia and Ivete Sangalo, and the city estimated the economic impact at about R$800 million.

The concert landed on a long weekend, with Labor Day on Friday, May 1, and the city filled for it. Bookings made before the event put hotel occupancy for the weekend at 86.59% in Ipanema and Leblon and 74.08% in Copacabana and Leme, according to HotéisRIO. The stage was built on the sand in front of the Copacabana Palace, and the crowd stretched along the beach toward the Forte de Copacabana.

A series through 2028

Before and after the show, the city and Riotur said the series is guaranteed until at least 2028, and the city has put it on its official calendar. Three years in, the free May concert has become one of the big weeks of the Rio year, alongside Réveillon and Carnival, and it brings a younger, more international crowd. The 2027 headliner and date had not been announced in October 2026; every edition so far has been on a Saturday in early May.

The Rio Marathon drew about 70,000 runners from 59 countries in 2026; in 2027 it falls on the Corpus Christi long weekend, May 27 to 30, now a Rio state holiday.

For owners, the lesson of the concert series is that Rio's calendar is filling in. A few years ago, the months between Carnival and the July holidays were quiet; now they have a concert, a marathon, a fashion week and conferences. That spreads demand for rentals across more of the year, which is good for owners and good for guests who prefer to travel outside the peak weeks.

September belonged to Rock in Rio. The festival ran over seven days, September 4 to 7 and 11 to 13, at the Cidade do Rock in the Olympic Park in Barra, with headliners including Foo Fighters, Avenged Sevenfold, Bring Me The Horizon, Elton John, Gilberto Gil, Jon Batiste, Stray Kids, Alok, Maroon 5, Demi Lovato, J Balvin and Pedro Sampaio. The organizers counted about 700,000 people, half of them from outside Rio state and visitors from 89 countries, and estimated R$3.36 billion in economic activity and 33,900 jobs. Some days were wet, which made the mud as famous as the music. The next Rio edition is in September 2028.

The rest of the season

Around it, the city's cultural calendar was the fullest in years. The first Rio Fashion Week, presented by the city, ran from April 14 to 18 at Píer Mauá, with 20 shows, about R$100 million in impact and about 7,000 jobs; a second edition is planned for April 2027. ArtRio brought 78 galleries to the Marina da Glória from September 16 to 20. Rio Gastronomia filled the Jockey Club on weekends from September 17 to October 4. The Festival do Rio screened about 350 films from October 1 to 11. Earlier in the year, the Rio Open drew about 70,000 people to the Jockey Club in February, and in 2027 it moves to a larger site.

The year also put Rio on the world football map again. In June the city held a one-year countdown on Copacabana for the FIFA Women's World Cup, and in August FIFA confirmed that the Maracanã will host the opening match and the final in 2027. The Final Draw will take place at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio on December 11, 2026.

What it meant for the homes we manage

Events in Barra, like Rock in Rio, send many visitors to stay in the West Zone, but they also fill Zona Sul, because many festival-goers want to be by the beach in the evenings. São Conrado and Vidigal, which sit between the two, suit festival-goers who want both. Our São Conrado y Vidigal pages explain why.

For most of 2026, the next big event on Rio's horizon was the FIFA Women's World Cup, which Brazil hosts from June 24 to July 25, 2027, the first in South America. The year filled in the details. In June the city marked one year to go with a countdown event on Copacabana. On August 20, FIFA published the match schedule: the Maracanã hosts the opening match, with Brazil playing on June 24, and the final on July 25, plus five group matches, a quarter-final and a semi-final, nine in all. São Paulo has ten matches and Fortaleza nine, among eight host cities.

From August 24 to 26, FIFA held a workshop for host cities and stadiums in Rio, and on August 25 it announced that the Final Draw will take place at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio, on the Aterro do Flamengo, on December 11, 2026, with more than 1,000 guests. By then more than 800,000 fans had registered their interest in tickets, and more than 95,000 people had signed up to volunteer. A study by FGV for Embratur, published in July, estimated R$8.8 billion of economic activity and 73,700 jobs across Brazil.

What it means for Rio

The World Cup will bring an international audience to Rio in the middle of the southern winter, when the city is usually at its quietest. The knockout rounds in July overlap the Brazilian school holidays, and the final weekend will be one of the busiest of the year. FIFA has confirmed Fan Festivals in Rio and across the country, though the Rio site had not been named in October.

Rio has done this before. It hosted the men's World Cup final in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016, and the city's profile abroad grew with each. The women's tournament is smaller, but it will put the Maracanã, Copacabana and the city's beaches in front of a global television audience for a month. Our 2027 calendar lists every Rio match and explains where to stay.

Sport filled the gaps between the big events. The Rio Open, South America's only ATP 500 tennis tournament, drew about 70,000 people over its nine days at the Jockey Club in Gávea in February, and announced in September that its 2027 site will grow from about 40,000 to 67,000 square meters, with a 9,500-seat center court. The Rio Marathon brought about 70,000 runners from 59 countries to the city's streets over four days of races, from a 5K to the full marathon.

The sea brought visitors too. The 2025 to 2026 cruise season at Píer Mauá, which ran from October 2025 to April 2026, was planned with 28 ships and 84 calls, and about 240,000 visitors, a smaller season than the year before, when 37 ships made 107 calls. The national picture for 2026 to 2027 is larger: the cruise association CLIA Brasil expects eight ships along the Brazilian coast from the end of October 2026 to April 2027, with about 24% more berths than the season before, and Rio is one of the seven ports where passengers board.

Events through the year

Put the year's events together, from Réveillon to Rock in Rio, and Rio in 2026 hosted something big almost every month. That is a choice the city has made: to use its beaches, its stadiums and its parks as stages, and to sign long agreements with events like Web Summit, which stays in Rio until 2030, and the free May concerts, guaranteed until 2028. For anyone who owns a home in Rio to rent, the calendar is the engine of demand, and in 2026 it ran at full speed.

For guests, the advice that follows from it is simple. Look at the calendar before you choose your dates, whether you want to be in Rio for one of the big weeks or to avoid them. Our guide to the best time to visit Rio helps with that choice.

For property, 2026 was the year Rio's market turned up. FipeZap's September 2026 report put Rio's average asking price at R$11,302 a square meter, up 4.34% since January and 5.57% over 12 months, ahead of consumer inflation of 4.58% over the same period. That came on top of a 5.21% rise in 2025, after 3.13% in 2024 and 1.42% in 2023. Rio prices fell every year from 2015 to 2019, and 2025 and 2026 are the strongest years for Rio prices since 2014.

The best neighborhoods led

The rise was strongest at the top. Leblon's average asking price rose 13.2% in 12 months to R$28,837 a square meter, Ipanema's 10.3% to R$26,996 and Copacabana's 9.9% to R$13,811. Lagoa barely moved, up 1.3%. Barra da Tijuca rose 4.9%, Botafogo 4.2% and Flamengo 5.9%.

New supply at the top of the market was thin. Brain Inteligência Estratégica counted only 11 new units above R$3 million launched in Rio in the second quarter of 2026, against 84 a year earlier, while the average price of high-end and luxury launches rose 9.1% to R$33,431 a square meter. Across the whole market, Ademi-RJ counted about 25,000 new units launched in the 12 months to June 2026. And foreign buyers were active: Ademi-RJ found that foreigners bought 32% of the compact new units sold in developments it studied in Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon between November 2025 and April 2026.

In dollars and euros

For a foreign owner, 2026 was a good year twice over. Prices rose in reais, and the real rose against the dollar and the euro. Put together, Rio prices rose roughly 13% in dollar terms from the end of 2025 to the autumn of 2026, and more in euros. An owner who already owned in Rio at the start of 2026 has seen the value of the home rise in their own currency.

What it means for buyers in 2027 is in our 2027 buying guide, and our comparison of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon explains the differences between the three neighborhoods that led the year.

Rents rose faster still. FipeZap's rent index for new leases in Rio rose 14.80% in the 12 months to September 2026, and 11.86% since January. The average asking rent was R$61.86 a square meter a month, for a gross yield of 6.30% a year. Copacabana rents rose 20.2%, Botafogo 19.5%, Flamengo 19.6%, Lagoa 18.2%, Ipanema 13.7% and Leblon 8.5%.

Short stays had a big year too. An FGV study commissioned by Airbnb, published in July 2026, estimated that Airbnb activity moved more than R$12 billion in the city of Rio in 2025, 21% more than in 2024, and supported more than 73,000 jobs. The record visitor numbers, the event calendar and the city's growing appeal to remote workers and long-stay guests all fed it.

The court and the condominiums

The year also brought the most important court decision on short stays in Brazil so far. On May 7, 2026, the Second Section of the Superior Court of Justice ruled, by a majority, that habitual short-term rental through platforms in a residential condominium needs prior authorization in the building's convention, approved by two-thirds of the owners. The decision was not binding on other courts, and in September the court took the question up as a repetitive appeal, Tema 1.443, which will set a binding rule. Cases on the subject across Brazil are suspended until it rules. In August, the federal prosecutors' office gave its opinion that no approval should be needed unless the convention expressly forbids short stays.

In Rio's city council, a bill to regulate short stays had not reached a vote by October. Our guide to short stays and condominium rules follows both.

For the homes we manage, 2026 confirmed something we tell every owner: the homes that do best are the ones guests remember, with a view, outdoor space, good beds and a team that answers. Those are the homes that fill first and hold their rates. Our guides to what a Rio short stay earns and to furnishing a Rio apartment for short stays explain what makes the difference.

Brazil started 2026 with a Selic of 15%, one of the highest real interest rates in the world, set to bring inflation down. In March the central bank began to cut. By October the rate was 13.75%, after five cuts in a row.

Inflation, by IBGE's IPCA, was 3.95% from January to September 2026 and 4.58% over the 12 months to September, just above the 4.5% ceiling of the central bank's target range. The economists in the central bank's Focus survey expect 5.22% for 2026 as a whole and a Selic of 13.25% by the end of the year.

Mortgages stayed where they were

The rate cuts had not reached mortgages by August. The average rate on new market-rate home loans was 14.70% in December 2025 and 14.24% in August 2026, and the rate on regulated savings-funded loans rose slightly, from 10.28% to 10.91%. Lending grew fast anyway: savings-funded home loans reached R$132.5 billion from January to August, 37% more than a year earlier, according to Abecip.

The real's strong year

The real was one of the stronger currencies of 2026. A dollar bought R$5.50 at the end of 2025, as little as about R$4.90 in May, and about R$5.08 in mid-October, by the central bank's PTAX rate. Against the euro, the real went from R$6.47 to about R$5.71. For foreigners already owning in Rio, that added to the value of their homes in their own currency; for those buying, it made Rio somewhat dearer than in January. Our currency converter uses the latest rates.

2026 was the year Brazil's tax changes began to touch property owners. On January 1, Lei 15.270, the income tax law signed in November 2025, came into force. It exempted monthly incomes up to R$5,000, introduced a minimum tax of up to 10% on residents' incomes above R$600,000 a year, and, for the first time since 1995, taxed dividends: 10% on large monthly payments to residents and 10% on every dividend paid to a shareholder abroad. For foreigners who hold Rio property through a Brazilian company, that last change matters.

The same day, the new consumption tax began its test year, with the federal CBS at 0.9% and the state and city IBS at 0.1%, waived for taxpayers who file correctly. In January, Lei Complementar 227 completed the rules, and among other things it confirmed that short-stay income counts toward the R$240,000 and three-property tests that decide whether an individual owner pays the new tax on rentals from 2027. In April the CBS regulation was published, and in July a decree postponed to January 2027 the registration of individual taxpayers.

The REARP asset update

Early in the year, owners had a short window under another law, Lei 15.265 of 2025, to update the value of assets on their tax returns to market value at a 4% income tax rate, which can reduce the capital gain on a later sale. The option closed in February 2026.

The city

Rio's IPTU for 2026 was corrected by inflation, with a 7% discount for payment in a single installment in February. The city's ITBI on purchases stayed at 3%, and in August a Rio court ordered the city to refund ITBI charged above the declared sale price, a decision that buyers in Rio will cite for some time.

We have put everything that changes in 2027, with what is settled and what is still open, into our guide to Brazil's 2027 tax changes for property owners. For most owners of one to three homes, the headline is reassuring: the new tax does not reach them.

The city itself changed in 2026, in ways that will matter for years. On March 20, Mayor Eduardo Paes resigned to run for governor, and his deputy, Eduardo Cavaliere, then 31, became mayor. Cavaliere inherited the city's big projects, among them the plan to bring housing back to the old center.

The center and the port

The Reviver Centro program, which encourages conversions of empty office buildings into apartments and new residential buildings in the center, doubled its licensing in 2025, with 22 projects and 3,270 homes, and by June 2026 had licensed 81 projects and 8,998 homes since 2021, according to the city's own report. About 1,772 homes had been completed. In 2026 the city licensed a 501-unit project on Rua Riachuelo and a 344-unit one on Rua da Quitanda. Next door, in the port, about 12,000 homes have been licensed in five years and 3,385 delivered. The city also announced a plan to take down the Elevado 31 de Março near the Sambódromo and open the area to housing and public space.

The metro to Gávea

Underground, the long-stalled Gávea station of Line 4 made real progress. Works restarted in 2025, rock excavation began in November 2025, and by March 2026 MetrôRio reported 12% physical progress on an investment of about R$697 million. Press reports from a site visit in July described daily blasting and about 70% of the tunnel between Gávea and São Conrado excavated, with opening expected in 2028.

The beach

On the beachfront, Orla Rio, which runs the city's 309 beach kiosks, opened new kiosks around the turn of the year, mostly in Barra and Copacabana. And three of Rio's most famous beachfront hotel buildings changed: the old Caesar Park in Ipanema prepared to reopen as a Sofitel, the former Hotel Praia Ipanema passed by court adjudication, at R$223.1 million, to owners who plan an ultra-luxury hotel, and Four Seasons confirmed a hotel on the Leblon beachfront for 2029.

For the homes we sell and manage, the direction is clear: more people want to live in and visit Zona Sul, and the city is investing around it. Our neighborhood pages for Ipanema, Leblon y Copacabana follow the changes street by street.

Getting to Rio got easier in 2026. On March 30, the Spanish airport operator Aena won the auction for the concession of Galeão, Rio's international airport, with a bid of R$2.9 billion, 210.88% above the minimum, beating Zurich Airport and the previous operator. It took over in early October, and on October 13 announced more than 50 extra weekly flights by January 2027 to nine cities, among them Paris, Miami, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Porto and Atlanta, and new or resumed service to nine more, including New York, Dallas, Toronto and Montreal. The airport carried about 18 million passengers in 2025, a record, and expects about 19 million in 2026.

GOL, the Brazilian airline, made Galeão its international hub. Its first direct flight from Rio to New York's JFK took off on July 8, 2026, three times a week, and its Lisbon route began on September 16, 2026, rising to five flights a week from late November. From January to May, Galeão's passenger traffic rose 15.8%, and its international traffic 16.5%.

New hotels

The year's hotel story was on the beachfront. The Sofitel Rio de Janeiro Ipanema, Accor's first Sofitel flagship in Brazil, in the former Caesar Park on Avenida Vieira Souto, prepared to welcome guests in December 2026. Four Seasons, which announced its Rio hotel in December 2025, will open in the Leblon building of the Marina Palace in 2029. The former Hotel Praia Ipanema will become an international ultra-luxury hotel, with the brand still to be announced. The Fasano, which turns 20 in 2027, and several other hotels announced renovations.

For a city whose beachfront hotels had changed little in a decade, that is a lot of change in one year, and it tells you where international hotel groups think Rio is going. For owners in Ipanema and Leblon, we expect new five-star hotels on the beach to add to the appeal of the streets behind them. For our guests, they add restaurants, bars and spas within a short walk of the homes we manage.

Looking back from October, 2026 was the year several long trends arrived at once. Visitors came in record numbers, from more places, through a better-connected airport. Prices in Rio's best neighborhoods rose faster than at any time since 2014, with very little new supply at the top. Rents rose faster still. Interest rates began to fall, and the real strengthened. The city invested in its center, its metro and its beachfront, and international hotel groups invested in Ipanema and Leblon.

For 2027, most of those trends look set to continue. The economists in the central bank's Focus survey expect the Selic to fall to 12% by the end of 2027, inflation to ease to 4.30% and the dollar to end the year at about R$5.26. The Women's World Cup will bring a final to the Maracanã in July. The new consumption tax starts in earnest on January 1, though most individual owners will stay outside it. And a new federal government term begins on January 1, after the October elections.

The numbers to watch

If you follow Rio from abroad, a handful of figures will tell you most of what you need to know in 2027. The Selic, set by the central bank roughly every six weeks, and the Focus survey that comes out every Monday. FipeZap's monthly price and rent reports for Rio and its neighborhoods. The dollar and euro against the real. The monthly foreign arrivals reported by Embratur and the state government. And, for owners, the CBS rate the Senate sets by December 15, 2026. We read all of them, and we will keep these guides up to date as they move.

For guests

Book early for the big weeks. 2026 showed how quickly Réveillon, Carnival and the May concert fill the city, and 2027 adds a World Cup final. Our 2027 calendar has every date, and our homes to rent page has live availability.

For buyers

The window of flat prices is closing in the best neighborhoods. Start looking early, and be ready to move when the right home appears. Our 2027 buying guide and our homes for sale are the places to start.

For owners

Rents and short-stay demand are strong, and the tax rules are changing. Check your numbers against the new tests, keep good records, and know what your building's convention says while the courts decide. Our 2027 tax guide explains the rules, and if a friend is looking for someone to manage a home, our guide to choosing a manager explains what to look for.

Thank you to every guest who stayed with us in 2026, and every owner who trusted us with their home. We will see you on the sand on December 31.