Thijs Griffioen on the Logic of São Paulo: Why the Fundamentals Truly Align

Thijs Griffioen is an entrepreneur and shareholder in several internationally operating companies within the agri-tech and med-tech sectors. Given this background, he is accustomed to working with scale, data-driven decision-making, and long-term capital allocation. He applies this same discipline to his investment strategy: for him, capital allocation is not a matter of sentiment, but a rational analysis of the global economic context.

“Capital must not only generate returns, but must also be logically positioned within the broader economic context”.

The Necessity of Reorientation

Within Europe, Griffioen observes a structural decline in the potential for real estate returns. According to the entrepreneur, the cause is not a lack of demand, but rather a bottleneck created by rising costs, market saturation, and increasing regulatory pressure.

This reality demands a fundamental reorientation away from traditional core markets. This search led him to São Paulo, a metropolis he views not as an emerging niche, but as a mature economic powerhouse. For the discerning investor, international diversification is not an opportunistic choice, but a strategic necessity to grow wealth in regions where demographics, urbanization, and economic activity still structurally reinforce one another.

Structure and Access: From Theory to Practice

For Griffioen, the market itself is only part of the equation; the way access to that market is organized is equally critical. International investing requires local knowledge, transparent structures, and professional risk management. Without these foundations, he believes an investment remains merely theoretical.

What appeals to him about the approach of ARD Capital Partners is the combination of governance, local presence, and direct market access:

• Substance Over Sentiment: The focus is not on promises, but on direct insight into projects, locations, and partners.
• The Investor Trip: Direct contact with the market and developers in São Paulo accelerates understanding and reduces assumptions.
• Validation: This physical verification is essential when dealing with capital allocations of significant size.

Economic Underpinning: The Power of Efficiency

The attractiveness of São Paulo is, according to Griffioen, primarily based on fundamentals. He points to the favorable phase of the real estate cycle in which the city finds itself compared to Western European cities. International benchmarks, such as the UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index, confirm that price levels in São Paulo are historically relatively moderate.

Furthermore, the specific product positioning of partner Vitacon plays a crucial role. They focus on compact, functional living concepts in strategic locations, tailored to the living and working reality of urban professionals and short-stay users.

“Value creation is not found in luxury, but in efficiency: location, amenities, and ease of use. This aligns with how large cities actually function”.

The Rational Balance

According to Griffioen, this creates a model where the interests of the developer, the tenant, and the investor run parallel. When a model is built on actual demand and scale, room is created for returns that are hardly achievable anymore in saturated European markets.

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