Long-Term Perspectives and The Elusive Category of Investment

The term investment is mostly used with reference to an economic transaction believed to provide the investor with a specific economic profit. This is also true in the economic transactions of vacation properties in Brazil, and certainly different instances of media and marketing have been keen on presenting it in this matter. Investment seemed to have diverse meanings for my informants - most of them paying no mind to economic reasoning. For several of the people I talked to, an investment, rather than producing a profit from a betterment of one’s financial situation, could help to enhance their qualities of living, such as their well-being. When I discussed the element of investment and long-term perspectives with one of my informants, he stated: “I think it is in a way an investment in other qualities than money. It is an investment in well-being, for instance”. As this informant introduced his idea of investment to me, it seemed to convey an aspect of welfare. Thereby, a growing “profit” that could come from investing in a vacation property helped to add to the idea of a dream home.

The Retirement Age

An important characteristic of second home procurement was a long-term perspective present in the form of an upcoming retirement age for most of the owners with whom I spoke. Keeping in mind the increased leisure time promised by retirement, it seemed as though it was important for many to make a plan for the future. Any supposed investment in welfare connected to ownership of vacation property seemed to be related significantly to the

owners’ future existence as a pensioner. Here, a long-term perspective was introduced in the hope of a prosperous future.

While planning for the retirement age, it was important to become familiar with the place where they wished to spend their spare time as a pensioner. The short visits to the second home were for many about ridding themselves of intimidations with such a settlement before the time came. My primary informant, Lise, and her husband Johannes, would often speak about the importance of becoming familiar with the location of their vacation property before reaching the age of retirement. Planning for their part-time life in Brazil during the Norwegian winter was important for them, as they imagined that it would be hard and also a bit frightening to set about establishing a second home in an unknown territory at an old age. Petter, a man soon to be a pensioner, who had owned his second home for a couple of years, expressed the same sentiments as Lise and Johannes when he presented important points in planning for his own future, by purchasing vacation property outside his own country. To him, it was crucial to get familiar with Brazil and the town of Pipa, but just as important was building relations to other people. In Petter’s own words:

I recommend everyone who gets close not to wait until they become

pensioners, but start preferably a few years before they become pensioners. In that way you can build some relations and such that are important. That thing about starting once you become a pensioner is that you never end up doing it.

You should start in good time, you have to practice. […] If you’re suddenly sixty, sixty-two years then you’re suddenly unsure of most things.^e

Planning for a future by spending time at a particular location in order to get to know another “environment” is naturally something one can imagine that the older generation would consider. However, some of my younger informants also pointed to the fact that in a long-term perspective, getting to know the place where they could imagine spending their retirement was important.

Emphasizing the importance of building social relations and getting to know their neighbour, both generations referred to the feeling of safety in a seasonal

settlement that was expected to figure in their retirement. Seeing as the

retirement age lay some years ahead for most of my informants, the long-term plan for a good life was not something that would need to be put on hold. The second home owners might as well enjoy themselves and not wait for the feeling of contentment until the retirement age.

Concluding Remarks: The Vacation Home’s Constructed Ideas This outline of acquisition’s main characteristics concerning vacation

properties in Brazil presents a picture of motives and intentions stated by the actors themselves. The conceptualization of a dream and the opportunity to experience something out of the ordinary, while at the same time enhancing the quality of living, were recurrent factors in such establishments. More important were thoughts concerning the wish to experience a perceived different culture than at home that laid the foundation of such purchases.

These characteristics of a dream home seemed to make it worth the cost. Thus, the ideas associated with ownership of vacation properties appeared more relevant then the nature of the property itself. The material object was not as a whole overlooked, but rather given a specific meaning that enabled an

imagination of dream homes in Brazil. These ideas portrayed Brazil as the adventurous location, and could therefore be one of the establishments that enabled many Norwegians to purchase a vacation property without acting upon prior experiences. The issues in this chapter represented some of the main ideas that allowed second homes to be established even though they were located such vast distances away from Norway. They were not, however, alone as a deciding factor upon purchase, as the next chapter will show.