A South Zone Rio de Janeiro apartment building facade — the kind of home Art de Vivre manages as a short-stay for owners abroad
Short-stay management · For owners

Own it here. We run it.

You bought — or are about to buy — an apartment in Rio, and you'd like it earning while you're not in it. We are a CRECI-licensed Rio brokerage that also runs a managed short-stay portfolio: listing, pricing, guests, cleaning, maintenance and the non-resident paperwork, handled for you in your language, with an owner statement you can actually audit.

01 · What this is

A broker who also runs the apartment.

Most people who manage Rio short-stays are one of two things: a Portuguese-first co-host operating on volume, or an international booking brand that isn't actually in Brazil. We are a third thing — a CRECI-licensed brokerage that both transacts and manages, works in English, Português, Français and Italiano, and owns the part foreign owners find hardest: the compliance. The CPF, the resident representative who collects the rent and files the tax, the way money enters and later leaves the country cleanly. That combination is unusual, and it is the whole reason this page exists.

What you get is a single point of contact — a named person, not a ticket queue — who is accountable for the apartment from the first listing photo to the money that lands in your account, and who can tell you honestly whether short-stay is even the right call for your unit. Sometimes it is not, and we will say so.

The honest version We take on apartments we believe we can run well, in buildings that actually permit short-stay, for owners who want it done properly rather than cheaply. If your building's rules or your numbers don't support it, we would rather tell you before you sign than collect a fee on a listing that disappoints you.
02 · Before anything else

Can your building actually allow it?

Short-stay letting itself is legal in Brazil — it is a defined category, "locação para temporada," under the Tenancy Law (Lei 8.245/1991, Art. 48), for stays of up to ninety days. The question that actually decides your plan is not the country's law; it is your condominium's. In May 2026 the Superior Court of Justice (the STJ — not, as often misreported, the Supreme Court) ruled that offering a unit for short-stays in a building whose convention sets a residential purpose requires prior authorization by at least two-thirds of the owners. That ruling is being finalized into a binding precedent, so treat it as the direction of travel rather than the last word — but treat it seriously.

In practice this means the first thing we do, before any talk of photos or pricing, is read your building's convention and recent assembly minutes. A purpose-built short-stay or "residencial com serviços" building is the easy case. A strictly residential building that has voted against short-lets is, increasingly, a closed door — and there is no point furnishing an apartment we cannot legally list. This is exactly the sort of thing a broker who lives in the market catches and a booking app on another continent does not. The full picture, with the case citations and the "confirm with a lawyer" caveats, is in our guide to whether Airbnb is legal in Rio.

This is information, not legal advice Condominium rules, the pending city bill and the tax mechanics all move, and your building is specific. We run the process and, where a file needs it, bring in a Rio lawyer we work with. We do not replace one.
03 · The service

What full management actually includes.

"Full-service" is a phrase every manager uses and few define. Here is ours, line by line. Every item below is part of the service, not an upsell, and the terms for it are agreed with you in writing before you hand over a key.

01

Listing and distribution

The apartment written up properly, photographed professionally, and placed across the platforms that matter — Airbnb, Booking.com and direct — with one calendar behind them so it is never double-booked. A good listing is the single biggest lever on what a home earns.

02

Pricing that moves with the calendar

Nightly rates set against real demand — Réveillon and Carnival are not August, and a flat price leaves money on the table in one direction or empties the calendar in the other. We manage the rate; you see what it is doing.

03

Guests, screened and hosted

Enquiries answered quickly in the guest's language, groups vetted before they book, and someone reachable through the stay. Check-in and check-out are handled on the ground — the keys are never your problem from another time zone.

04

Turnovers, linens and upkeep

Professional cleaning and fresh linen between every guest, consumables restocked, and the small maintenance that a lived-in apartment always needs caught early — a dripping tap, a tired mattress, an air-conditioner due a service — before it becomes a bad review.

05

The compliance run for you

The non-resident tax withholding, the resident representative who is legally the one to collect the rent and file it, the paperwork that lets the money leave the country cleanly. This is the part foreign owners dread, and the part we most want to own.

06

An owner statement you can audit

Every booking, every payout, every cost, itemised, on a schedule — so you can reconcile what the apartment earned against what reached your account, line by line, and never have to take our word for it. More on why that matters below.

Some apartments arrive empty. If yours needs furnishing, styling and photographing before it can earn, that is a defined piece of work with its own timeline and budget, agreed up front — not a vague "we'll sort it." We cover exactly how that works in the furnishing guide.

04 · The thing you're really worried about

How do you know we're not skimming?

We will say the quiet part out loud, because it is the single most common reason a foreign owner hesitates: you are handing the keys and the income of a valuable apartment to people you have mostly met over email, in a country whose language and paperwork you may not read. The fear that bookings get hidden or costs get padded is completely reasonable, and any manager who is offended by the question is the wrong manager.

Our answer is not a promise; it is a document. You get an itemised owner statement you can reconcile against the platform's own records — the bookings, the nightly rates, the fees, the cleaning, the tax withheld, the amount remitted to you — so the apartment's performance is something you can check rather than something you have to trust. Transparency you can audit is worth more than any assurance, and it is the standard we hold ourselves to.

A fair test for any Rio manager Ask to see a sample owner statement and how it maps to the platform payouts. Ask who legally receives the rent, and under whose tax number it is filed. A manager who answers both plainly is one you can work with; one who gets vague is telling you something. Our guide to choosing a manager is the full checklist — written to be used on us as much as on anyone else.
05 · The numbers, honestly

What you'll actually take home.

We will not put a nightly rate or a yield for your apartment on a public page — those depend on the specific home and the calendar, and anyone who quotes them blind is guessing. What we can do is point at the market data honestly and then model your own unit properly.

Independent trackers give the shape of it. For Copacabana, Airbtics has put the average annual short-stay revenue around R$121,000 at roughly 65% occupancy; across the city, occupancy more realistically sits in the 45–55% range rather than the 80% that gets quoted in sales pitches (TheLatinvestor, AirROI). Those are third-party figures, not our promises, and your building, your floor, your view and your furniture will move them in both directions. What matters is the net after the real costs — the condomínio, IPTU, utilities, cleaning, the platform fees, the management fee and the tax — not the headline gross.

The gross What the calendar brings in — driven by the listing, the pricing and the season.
The real costs Condomínio, IPTU, utilities, cleaning, platform and management fees, and the tax.
=
What reaches you The net, in your currency, after it is remitted — the only number that counts.

The exact same sheet we use internally is public: the ROI calculator runs short-stay against long-let on your real figures. For the market-by-market picture and the occupancy reality, see what a Rio short-stay really earns, and for the yield map by neighborhood, our rental-yields piece.

06 · The paperwork, owned

The compliance stack we run for you.

This is the part that makes foreign owners put the whole idea in a drawer, and it is the part we most want to take off your plate. None of it is as bad as it looks once someone who does it every week is holding the pen. In plain terms, and as information rather than tax advice:

  • CPF. You need a Brazilian taxpayer number to hold and let property. It can be arranged from a consulate abroad or through a representative here.
  • A resident representative (procurador). As a non-resident you appoint a Brazil-based representative with a specific public power of attorney. On rentals this person is legally the one who receives the rent, withholds the tax and files it — the withholding is even done under their tax number, not yours.
  • The rental-income tax. A non-resident's Brazilian rental income is taxed at a flat 15% withheld at source (25% only if you are tax-resident in a listed low-tax jurisdiction — the US, UK, Canada, Portugal and most of Europe are not on that list, so 15%). It is paid monthly and, because it is final at source, you file no Brazilian annual return for it. A narrow set of documented costs can be deducted first; confirm which with a contador. (Rate per PwC; mechanics per specialist tax firms.)
  • Money in, money out. If you brought your purchase funds in through a proper foreign-exchange contract, that record is what lets rent and, later, sale proceeds convert and leave the country cleanly. Contrary to a common myth, a personal apartment purchase does not go through the Central Bank's foreign-investment registry — the banked exchange contract is the thing that matters.

We coordinate all of it and introduce the accountant and, where needed, the lawyer. The full walk-through is in getting paid and staying compliant, and the complete tax inventory — purchase, ownership, sale and back home — is in the foreign-owner tax guide.

07 · From wherever you are

Run it from another continent.

Most of our owners are in Rio a few weeks a year and everywhere else the rest of the time. That is the normal case, not the hard one. The apartment earns while you are away, you block the dates you want it for yourself, and the day-to-day — the 2 a.m. guest message, the locked-out arrival, the burst pipe in February — is ours, in the right time zone, in the right language.

If you have not bought yet, that is fine too: a specific public power of attorney lets the whole purchase, and the CPF, be handled without you flying in, and we can line the management up so the apartment is earning almost from the day it is yours. How the remote side works in practice — keys, cleaning, communication, the trust question — is in running your Rio Airbnb from abroad, and the end-to-end owner's version is how to rent out your Rio apartment as a foreigner.

Frequently asked

What owners ask us first.

Can a foreigner rent out a Rio apartment without living in Brazil?

Yes. A non-resident foreigner can own and let an urban Rio apartment with the same rights as a Brazilian — no residency requirement and no cap. You will need a CPF (a Brazilian taxpayer number) and a Brazil-based representative to handle the rent and the tax filing. The rural and border-land restrictions you may have read about do not apply to city apartments.

Is short-term letting even allowed in my building?

That is the first thing we check. Short-let is legal in Brazil as a category, but a May 2026 STJ ruling means a residential-designated condominium can require two-thirds owner approval for it, and some buildings have voted it down. We read your convention and recent assembly minutes before anything else, because there is no point setting up an apartment we cannot legally list. It is information, not legal advice, and where a file needs it we bring in a Rio lawyer.

How much will my apartment earn?

We will not guess at a number for a public page. Independent trackers put Copacabana's average short-stay revenue around R$121,000 a year at roughly 65% occupancy, and citywide occupancy more realistically at 45–55% (Airbtics, TheLatinvestor) — but your unit is specific, and those are third-party figures, not our promises. We model your apartment on its own calendar, and the ROI calculator lets you run it yourself first.

What tax will I pay as a non-resident, and how do I get paid abroad?

A non-resident's Brazilian rental income is generally taxed at a flat 15% withheld at source (25% only if you are tax-resident in a listed low-tax jurisdiction). Your Brazilian representative withholds and files it monthly, and because it is final at source you file no Brazilian annual return for that income. The net is remitted to you; a clean foreign-exchange record from your purchase is what lets it convert and leave the country without friction. This is information, not tax advice — confirm the specifics with a contador.

How do I know you're reporting every booking?

Because you can check. You get an itemised owner statement — bookings, rates, fees, cleaning, tax withheld, amount remitted — that reconciles against the platform's own payout records. Performance you can audit beats any assurance, and we would rather you verify than trust.

Can I still use the apartment myself?

Of course. You block the dates you want — a few weeks a year, a season, whatever suits — and the apartment earns around them. Many owners keep the New Year and Carnival weeks for themselves and let the rest of the calendar work.

What does management cost?

Full-service management in Rio generally runs a percentage of the revenue, and the market sits broadly in the 20–30% range depending on scope. Ours is agreed with you in writing up front, all-in, with no surprise extras — and we would rather explain exactly what it buys than compete on a headline number. Our guide to what management costs lays the economics out in full.

My apartment is empty — can you get it ready?

Yes. Furnishing, styling and photographing an empty unit for short-stay is a defined piece of work with its own timeline and budget, agreed before we start. The furnishing guide covers what it takes and roughly how long.

No cost, no obligation

Have your Rio place run properly.

Tell us where the apartment is and how you want to use it. Charlie reads every enquiry himself and replies the same day — in English, Português, Français or Italiano — with a straight answer on whether short-stay makes sense for your unit and what running it with us looks like. No cost, no obligation, no nightly number quoted blind.

  • Same-day reply, in your language
  • CRECI-licensed brokerage · owner statements you can audit
  • Information, not legal or tax advice

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One point of contact

Tell us about the apartment.

Send the building, the neighborhood and how you'd like to use it. Charlie reads it himself and replies the same day — with a straight answer on whether short-stay fits your unit, and what running it with us looks like. In English, Português, Français or Italiano.