Our focus is on repopulating the city of Asunción so people can once again live close to the city center,” states Mr. Carlos Guasti, President and Founder of Petra Group. Indeed, after almost ten years of operations, they have managed to radically innovate the real estate market of Paraguay’s capital, which was characterized by insufficient city housing and poor access to infrastructure, with a vision that combines high design, energy-saving home automation technology, urban planning, and affordable prices. So far, they have developed 21 projects, of which 4 are skyscrapers and the rest are medium to large-scale buildings located in the most concentrated areas of the city. As Mr. Guasti explains, “we make products that are disruptive, that go beyond what is traditional in the real estate industry and that reflect a perfect relationship between the city and the clients. We do not want to just make large buildings, but functional buildings that are integrated into the city and in which people can live together.

Given the increasing demand for urban housing, their innovative approach is certainly yielding excellent results with homeowners and investors alike: “The interest in vertical housing has been enormous. Since we started, our success is based on the fact that after only two to three months of being inaugurated, our buildings are already fully inhabited,” assures Petra Group’s president, adding that their competitiveness is also enhanced by their property’s low taxes and expenses, making them very attractive for local and foreign investors when compared to other Latin American cities. Another determining factor has been their all-in-one approach to handling investments. Their platform provides foreign investors full support by managing all investment-related aspects, from opening a bank account to accessing all the financial tools, accounting, and legal advice. This way, not only do they facilitate this process for their clients, but they have also managed to attract new international clients that are transforming the city’s investment climate. “In recent years, Paraguay has received people from all over the world coming to invest here, and as a company, we have been instrumental in facilitating this opening,” assures Mr. Guasti.

Such an international approach is not only limited to attracting investors, though. An important part of Petra Group’s ethos is their desire to learn from and work with international experts that have had successful experiences in urban transformation all over the world. That is why they also have an architectural firm that designs their products capitalizing on previous experiences with specific innovations and client needs, as well as new designs brought in from abroad after meeting with architects from around the world. An example of these efforts is their emblematic Petra Tower project, a 44-story building that, once finished, will be the highest skyscraper in the country, and which is the result of the collaboration between local partners and international companies like BM Integrado, STO and AJB from Brazil, Nova Fluid Mechanics from Italy, and Windtech Consultants from Australia. Moreover, this experience has served to elevate the technical standards for the execution of skyscrapers in the country by giving local construction companies the opportunity to learn advanced engineering techniques and, simultaneously, it has opened a new market for living units that are made with the highest international standards and are accessible for middle to high-class clients. As Mr. Guasti states, “We have managed to offer a product that is both of high quality and affordable, without straying from the luxury that people look for in skyscrapers.”

This formula has been so successful that they sold all Petra Tower’s apartments in only four months, and are now planning to build a mixed project, an office building, and a projected 60-story tower. Additionally, they have developed a waste management company, CIKLA, that separates the waste from their buildings, collects it, and resells it to other companies; and a furniture company that furnishes the apartments and provides their clients with the best quality finishes without raising the price and offering a better after-sales service. “Our job is not simply to sell an apartment and give an asset to our clients, but to accompany them through all the phases. It is a whole chain. Thanks to this vision, we are ranked number one in the real estate market in Asunción, both in compliance, execution of works, and sales,” says Mr. Guasti proudly. Seeing the scope of their ambitions and what they have managed to achieve so far, we fully understand why.