"I started my professional life at a very young age. When I was 16 years old, I was already thinking about financial independence.

My family did not accept the profession I had chosen because of the prejudice that existed against real estate brokers, considered to be of questionable ethics, almost hoodlums. I wanted to prove the contrary and insisted on being a broker because it is a dynamic profession where I could exercise a gift I had always had: to deal with people and sales. At the Boarding School I exercised this gift by selling things to my classmates.

My first real estate sales were subdivisions in the city of Nova Iguaçu, where I managed brokers I had solicited. Between the ages of 16 and 18, I had already sold three of these large subdivisions, including “Jardim Natal” and “Cidade Marajoara”.

After selling them, I opened my first brokers’ office at Rua do Carmo, # 38. I started selling a lot of separate properties, and after that, with the experience I acquired, I registered at the Companhia Recreio dos Bandeirantes as the only free-lance broker to sell lots there. To do so, I set up a sales stand in a wood shed at the Pontal do Recreio (photo).

The sales were a big hit! The accelerated development of Barra da Tijuca and Recreio dos Bandeirantes, the two fastest growing districts in the city of Rio de Janeiro today, was underway. Actually, Sergio Castro management has recently inaugurated a new branch, in Barra da Tijuca, to better serve our clients there, and to be able to follow this growth up close. It is very well known that the South Zone is expanding towards Barra, which is no longer considered part of the West Zone.

At the age of 25, and still at Rua do Carmo, I had received so many undertakings to sell I was obliged to create teams of brokers. And so SERGIO CASTRO IMÓVEIS LTDA was created. In 5 years, I launched 54 buildings and thousands of separate properties distributed throughout the South and North zones for sale, totaling approximately 10,000 units sold.

In mid-1965, I acquired the offices for Sergio Castro’s current headquarters at Rua da Assembléia, # 40 – 6 th , 11th, 12th, 13th and top floors, and shortly thereafter, five branches: Copacabana, Tijuca, Pedra de Guaratiba, Lagoa and Cabo Frio. Of all these, the best known by the general public is the one at Lagoa, which is a house I own which became the biggest Real Estate center for selling homes in Rio de Janeiro.

Because of the number of clients who bought property from us, I was obliged to create our Administration Department, which is still in operation, and which once had 4000 separate properties under administration, having never administered condominiums. With this large number of properties under administration, we had to create a Legal Department aimed at satisfying the growing needs of our clients.

Like all modern and growing companies, in the early 1980s we saw ourselves obliged to computerize the company, thus reducing the number of employees and holding on to only the top and best-trained people to better serve the desires of our clients. Nowadays, however, Sergio Castro Imóveis is a family of more than 150 workers and brokers, well-trained and able to serve our clients with efficiency and competence.

In my 54 years in the real estate profession, I have had countless clients become friends. They include the brothers Ricardo and Roberto Marinho, Admirals Maximiano da Fonseca and Arnaldo Leite Pereira, Minister Edson Mey, Tom Jobim and Carlos Imperial, Walter Avancini, Bibi Ferreira, Senators Benjamin Farah and Darcy Ribeiro not to mention President Juscelino Kubitchek. So many friendships over these years!

I was recently studying the real estate market in developed countries while visiting other countries with foreign companies and brokers. I can guarantee that none of them compare to our domestic market, which is in full-blown expansion, especially the city of Rio de Janeiro, which because it lies between the sea and the mountains has no more room to expand, thus greatly appreciating the properties located therein.

Over the next triennial period, the real estate market will grow greatly due to the low yield of other financial applications and the constant appreciation of real estate, especially commercial. As a result of monetary stability, rental income has exceeded savings yield, not to mention the guarantees brought by PROPERTY and the HIGH VALUES of real estate. Income from property rental in our city often reaches 1,2% per month!

In conclusion, I want to thank God, my fellow brokers and all of the employees, clients and friends who over these years have honored me with their business and contributed to my being able to reach, like few others, the top of the pyramid in this profession I chose.

Thank you very much,

SERGIO CASTRO
Director President

Sergio Castro was born on August 8, 1932. He went to school at the Aldridge British School, the São José Boarding School, and a Jesuit school, Santo Inácio, where he concluded his high school. He volunteered in the CPOR (Army´s Cavalry) at the age of 18, and graduated in Law from the Cândido Mendes College, as part of its first graduation class (OAB 10.131).

His father, Dr. Alvaro de Castro, was a college professor at the National College of Medicine, and also graduated in Law and Pharmacy. His mother, Dona Lygia Richard de Castro, was the daughter of the great entrepreneur, Antônio Eugênio Richard, or engineer Richard, whose name was given to the main avenue in the district he had idealized and built, Grajaú. Other works of his include the Rio-Petrópolis Road and the construction of a large part of Ilha do Governador. Richard was a friend and confidente of President Getúlio Vargas.

When Rio de Janeiro was still the capital of Brazil, he founded the C.R.E.C.I. (Regional Council for Real Estate Brokers), 1st Region, and has registration # 22 of that institution, where he was vice-president for several decades. He has also been an active member of SINDIMÓVEIS (Real Estate Brokers Union) since he first enrolled when he was 24 years old. For 7 years, he wrote the column “Behind the Scenes of Rentals” in the O Globo newspaper published on Wednesdays, where he answered readers’ questions about the real estate market. O GLOBO is Rio de Janeiro´s leading newspaper.

His preferred hobbies are fishing, hunting and amateur radio (his prefix is PY1-SC). He is also a marksman having won more than one hundred medals. He is a member at several clubs, including the Brazilian Jockey Club and the traditional Marimbás Club, besides being an advisor for years at the Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club, his favorite.

He was earned several military merit medals for services rendered the country and the armed forces.

He was also a farmer in the city of São José do Vale do Rio Preto, a former district of Petrópolis. He used to own the Sant`Ana Da Jaguara farm, where he raised animals and was a large producer of poultry for slaughter and eggs.

He is a Flamengo fan, divorced and the father of three. His first born, Cláudia, is a professor at PUC-RIO, with a doctorate in Philosophy. His two sons, Sergio Júnior and Cláudio André, are architect and lawyer, respectively. Sérgio works at our newly founded Barra da Tijuca Branch, whereas Cláudio is our Sales Department Director.