Buying Property in Lagoa do Paraíso, Jericoacoara

Town, lagoon and two municipalities

Lagoa do Paraíso is the name tourists use for the lagoon that official papers call Lagoa da Jijoca. It lies beside the town center of Jijoca de Jericoacoara, about 20 km from the village beach, and most of the municipality's services are here. Jardineira trucks and tours cross the sand between the two. Tourist buggies bring many visitors to the shore restaurants, and Melhores Destinos advises going in the morning, since the lagoon gets crowded from lunchtime.

The protected area around it, a state APA, covers 3,995.61 hectares, and over 60% of that lies in Cruz, not Jijoca. A lot on this water can therefore answer to either city hall. Your first question for any shore plot is which municipality taxes it. Both codes set ITBI at 2%, but Cruz lowers it to 1.5% for tax paid ahead of the signing, and the hub sets out Jijoca's rules.

The airport is close by the standards of this coast, about 8 km in a straight line from a water body OpenStreetMap labels Lagoa do Paraíso, by our own measure between map coordinates. That is the lagoon's practical advantage over the village, which lies across the dunes. The disadvantage is the one guides note. There is no restaurant center here, and access to the dunes and the village beach takes a trip.

What the protected area allows

An APA, an environmental protection area, permits private ownership and building under rules. This one dates from a state decree of 10 August 2000. A management plan arrived in November 2019, well beyond the five years the law expects. According to Diário do Nordeste's 2020 report, the plan bans motorboats and similar craft on the lagoon, building or expanding without environmental licensing, clearing vegetation or using fire without authorization, and any activity that pollutes the water. It also bans interventions in permanent preservation areas such as the lagoon margins and the dune field.

Courts have stepped in before. On 29 September 2016 the Jijoca judge barred the state from licensing new works in the APA and halted licensing in progress, with a R$ 30,000 fine per license, until a management plan and a council existed. The MPCE had argued that speculation and unplanned building were advancing, and the court pointed to the risk of groundwater contamination, silting and water loss. It also noted that 18 communities in the APA depend on its resources, and that residents say the lagoon's level is falling. We could not confirm what the court did after the plan arrived, so have your lawyer check case 696-93.2016.8.06.0111 before you rely on a license.

A separate MPCE case from 2016 shows how close to home this runs. Prosecutors sued over a building at Avenida Manoel Marques, in the town center, saying it had no permit or license and extended into the lagoon, with a flood risk at high water. Town addresses are not outside this conversation.

Rural or urban also matters here. In 2017 federal prosecutors asked the court to treat a lagoon-side development's site as rural, within the park's buffer zone, a little over 500 meters from the park. If a plot could be classed as rural, a foreign buyer needs the rural land guide before going further.

A legal lakeside business leaves a paper trail, and the 2018 court report gives a handy list: environmental licenses, a municipal environmental sign-off, a fire department certificate, a deep-well permit from the state water department, and operating and health permits. Ask a seller for each one. The plan also names fixed dunes, tablelands and riparian forest as ecosystems to protect, so a lot with trees near water is no blank page. A 2024 municipal law, 888, also created the Parque Municipal do Boqueirão inside this APA.

The shoreline line nobody has fixed

Brazilian law protects a strip around any lagoon as a permanent preservation area, the APP. The width on this lagoon has been fought over. A June 2018 report describes a restaurant on 3.85 hectares, licensed and later shut by the state agency for occupying the APP. It reached a conduct agreement under which Semace would delimit the APP. A federal judge then lifted a new shutdown, finding no definitive information on the real line. Federal prosecutors had already sued the same group in 2017, asking for licenses to be voided and structures in the APP to be demolished.

We have not found a published final line, or how those cases ended. This is the central fact for anyone looking at shorefront here. Your surveyor's line may not be the one a court adopts. Water level adds to the uncertainty, since the shore moves with the rains. Estado de Minas gives July to September as the peak for the region's lagoons, so a plot that looks well back from the water in November may look different after a wet year.

Ask Semace for any APP delimitation affecting the lot, and ask the APA's managers, the state environment department, for the zoning in the 2019 plan. A generic "environmental license" in a seller's folder should show the date, the area covered and the conditions. Licenses here have been pulled after issue. The national title guide explains the checks that sit alongside this one.

Living in Jijoca town

If you want a normal street address and your own car outside, this side of the market offers it. A February 2026 law made official the names of town roads such as Avenida Manoel Teixeira, Avenida Jericoacoara, Rua 06 de Março, Rua José Elias, Rua Cesário Pereira and Avenida Afonso Fontes, so street addresses should now be clearer than they were. City hall is at Rua Nazaré Vasconcelos, 1707.

Shops are easy: one business directory shows 25 food stores downtown, many along Avenida Manoel Teixeira and others on Rua Santa Luzia and Avenida Afonso Fontes. EEEP Sandra Carvalho Costa, a public high school, is here, with about 520 students. The city's tourist-fee collection point is here too, on the route to the village. Residents of the municipality are exempt from the fee, so a permanent address in Jijoca does save a little every trip, on the rules reported in 2026.

The trade-off is wind and kite access. A resident here looks at Preá for wind and the village for night life, and each is a separate trip. If you want lagoon life with a city close by, Lagoa da Conceição in Florianópolis offers that, in a city FipeZAP reads at R$ 13,607/m². Those who want the sea from a town can also consider Camocim, a larger place further west.

The wider municipality has changed fast. MapBiomas figures reported in 2025 show farmland rising from 583 to 5,109 hectares between 1985 and 2023, forest falling from 15,114 to 10,708 hectares, and human-modified land growing from 4.3% to 27% of the area. Inland plots may be cheaper, but check their current use and any clearing permit.

Questions about Lagoa do Paraíso

Can I build on the shore of Lagoa do Paraíso?

Only with licensing inside the state APA, and outside the shoreline protection strip, whose exact line has been disputed in court. Ask Semace and a local environmental lawyer before buying.

Is the lagoon in Jijoca or Cruz?

Both. The protected area lies mostly in Cruz and partly in Jijoca, so check which city taxes the lot and which registry holds its record.

Are the resorts at the lagoon a good way in?

This guide does not rate them. A multi-ownership share gives you time in a unit, not a house. Check the license, the incorporation and the resale terms with your own lawyer.

Can a foreigner buy land around the lagoon?

Yes, within limits if the plot counts as rural. Prosecutors have argued that at least one lagoon site is rural, so the rural land guide comes first.

When is the lagoon at its fullest?

Estado de Minas gives July to September. A 2016 court report says residents agree the level has been falling.

Sources

Written by Lucas Andrade. Updated November 2026. General information, not legal, tax or investment advice.

Buying property in Lagoa do Paraíso, Jericoacoara

Town, lagoon and two municipalities

What the protected area allows

The shoreline line nobody has fixed

Living in Jijoca town

Questions about Lagoa do Paraíso

Sources

Streets and places in Lagoa do Paraíso

Streets to look at

Places nearby

Homes for sale in Lagoa do Paraíso

Asking prices on our market index

Keep reading on Jericoacoara

Buying property in Lagoa do Paraíso, Jericoacoara

Town, lagoon and two municipalities

What the protected area allows

The shoreline line nobody has fixed

Resorts and share sales on the shore

Living in Jijoca town

Questions about Lagoa do Paraíso

Sources

Streets and places in Lagoa do Paraíso

Streets to look at

Places nearby

Homes for sale in Lagoa do Paraíso

Asking prices on our market index

Keep reading on Jericoacoara