Buying Property in Praia da Prea, near Jericoacoara

A fishing village turned kite base

Praia do Preá is a beach district of Cruz, a municipality of 29,761 people in the 2022 census. The city's own 2022 coastal diagnostic tells its story: a fishing community whose net sheds, the pesqueiras, gave way to pousadas, bars and second homes, as the national park, a paved road to the village of Preá and then the airport brought visitors. It reaches from inside the park to the Acaraú border. The diagnostic divides the 6.61 km shoreline into two parts: a western stretch "in the process of urbanization", dense with services and traffic, and an eastern stretch with low density, pousadas, resorts and kite schools, where it says the guests have high spending power and many are foreign.

Melhores Destinos puts it 11 km from the village by sand road and calls it more urban than Jericoacoara, with fewer things to do, cheaper rooms on the sea and many kite customers. The wind runs from July to January, according to the diagnostic. Bloomberg Línea reports foreigners, French visitors among them, drawn to that wind, and puts the airport 20 to 30 minutes away. A 2023 NeoFeed story cited a Cruz estimate of about 800,000 tourists passing through each year, and some kite schools giving more than 60 lessons a day at peak.

Projects, plots and asking prices

Cruz's own tourism chief claimed in 2026 that the coast as far as Acaraú has practically no land left to sell. That is a promoter's line, but the projects back up the direction. Vila Carnaúba, which NeoFeed ties to a group including former XP executives, spreads across more than half a million square meters of expensive houses, and includes an Anantara hotel that Bloomberg Línea reports at R$ 150 million with a 2028 opening. A smaller end exists too: a 2023 report described a seven-unit beachfront property on 10,000 m², charging above R$ 4,000 a day.

Published price data does not exist for Preá. The Chaves na Mão portal, read on 3 November 2026, showed Preá lots like these, with no dates and some approximate locations:

Seven of the 14 Preá lots on one portal, November 2026
Area	Asking price	About per m²
170 m²	R$ 60,000	R$ 350
456 m²	R$ 280,000	R$ 610
300 m²	R$ 300,000	R$ 1,000
500 m²	R$ 650,000	R$ 1,300
240 m²	R$ 500,000	R$ 2,080
2,105 m²	R$ 2,000,000	R$ 950
22,540 m²	R$ 3,200,000	R$ 140

The other lots on that page run from about R$ 76/m² to a 180 m² plot at about R$ 19,400/m². The spread is wide, and much of it probably reflects title quality and distance from the sea, which the adverts do not state. Compare the 2018 report that said land at the entrance to the village of Jericoacoara cost about what beachfront land did at Preá. Anyone making that comparison today needs current numbers from a local broker.

Land, dunes and federal lines

Nothing from the village's title fight carries over automatically, because Preá has its own registry questions, under Cruz. The federal compensation suits do name farms called Junco I, Junco II and Caiçara with land in the park, so check your plot's chain for those names. The diagnostic lists the zoning: Plano Diretor Law 337/2008, Law 338/2008 on land division, and two Preá-specific laws from 2003, 250 for building and 251 for land use. Get the current versions from city hall, with any change since then.

Federal land is mapped here. The diagnostic says the 1831 high-tide line, the basis for terreno de marinha, is demarcated and approved along this shoreline, so the SPU's position on a plot can be checked, using the marine land guide. The whole shore is classed as an area of special interest, in the buffer zone of the park. The diagnostic also records growing stalls on the sand strip and irregular occupation in common-use and preservation areas. Further back, the lagoon's state protected area takes in much of inland Cruz, so read the Lagoa do Paraíso page before buying inland of the dunes.

Foreign buyers face the rural question on any plot beyond the expansion area, per the rural land guide, and a gated project's convention can limit rentals. Cruz's tax code, updated in December 2025, sets ITBI at 2%, or 1.5% if paid before the deed is signed, on a market value its tax office determines, and IPTU at 0.5% on built lots and 1% on unbuilt ones. An underused empty lot can see that rate doubled each year up to 15%, so confirm the figures with the Prefeitura de Cruz before you budget.

Water, flooding and the shoreline

Services are the weak point today. The 2022 diagnostic says occupation arrived without public sanitation, with individual solutions for water and sewage, and flooding in the rainy season where natural drainage was cut off. Waste collection worsened when tourists were many. On the eastern stretch there was no public lighting, and developments solved their own water and sewage. In November 2024 the state ordered a R$ 99.9 million project for water, sewage and drainage in the district, with a 900-day deadline, which would run to about mid-2027 if work began on time. We found no progress report, so ask what exists on your street.

On erosion, the sources disagree in an instructive way. The state's 2025 plan found no erosive process at Preá but flagged it because buildings stand so close to the waterline, and it counts 6 critical points in low-density parts of Cruz. The city's diagnostic lists Preá as subject to coastal erosion, with sea and dunes reaching stalls and shorefront buildings, some of which had been vacated. It also says a 2015-2021 analysis showed stability on the western stretch, while residents report changes, and that owners were placing wooden barriers and cement sacks. Also on that list: an area subject to flooding where a seasonal stream runs to the sea. Have a surveyor read the lot against all of it. The national flood and landslide checklist covers the official layers.

Renting and who buys

AirROI tracks 276 active Airbnb listings for all of Cruz over the year to September 2026: an average of R$ 815 a night, 26.1% occupancy and R$ 49,522 per listing, down 9.3% on the prior year. December tops the year at about R$ 12,400 per listing, and April is lowest at about R$ 4,530. Compare the village, where AirROI's rates are lower, at R$ 408, and occupancy a little higher, at 32.3%. The Cruz figures include inland listings, and Preá's own kite-season figures are not published.

Who buys? The evidence points to hospitality operators and second-home owners, including kite travelers. If you want this crowd with a much shorter road from a big airport, Cumbuco is the obvious comparison, and Bloomberg Línea notes it is the one with the official title from the Senate. Preá's case rests on its wind and its neighbor. A sale here needs the usual checks for this coast, especially on title, sand and which city taxes you, and the title guide lists them.

Questions about Praia da Prea

Is Preá part of Jericoacoara?

No. It is a beach district of Cruz, next to the park. Taxes, zoning and the registry all follow Cruz, not Jijoca.

When is the wind best at Preá?

Sources give July to January for kite conditions, with August usually strongest on this coast.

Does Preá have public sewage and water?

A 2022 city report said individual solutions prevailed. A R$ 99.9 million state project ordered in November 2024 aims to change that, with a 900-day deadline, so check the status for your street.

Is Preá eroding?

The state's 2025 plan found no erosion but flagged buildings close to the sea, while a city report listed erosion and vacated buildings. Treat it as open, and get a site-specific reading.

What do lots cost at Preá?

No index exists. One portal in November 2026 showed 14 undated Preá lots, with most small plots asking about R$ 300 to R$ 2,100/m² and outliers well outside that.

Sources

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

Buying property in Praia da Prea