On both sides of the road into São Gonçalo, across the bay from Rio de Janeiro, the favelas are banked up on the steep wooded hillsides, precarious structures mixed in with more solid buildings, self-constructed, in many cases unfinished, often with little or no sanitation, and lacking foundations to secure them against mudslides. The reason for the visit, though, is to see the alternative.

In a cluster of similar developments in the sprawling town, a gated condominium of six neat white-and-blue blocks, 16 or 20 apartments to a block, is awaiting final authorisation for the occupants to move in. The units have all been sold, at R$66,000 (US$38,000) for a two-bedroom apartment. But for the most recent buyers these homes have come much cheaper.