rio de janeiro has 161 official neighborhoods and about 30 unofficial neighborhoods, divided into seven sub-prefectures, and 33 administrative regions to make up four separate zones.  ' zona sul ' is the southern zone, 'zona oeste ' the west zone, ' zona norte' is the north zone, and 'zona central' is central, which is referred to as downtown. 

at the beginning on the 20th century, centro and são cristóvão were the most expensive neighborhoods before the development of the beach areas - interest towards in this glamorous southern zone is where copacabana became the most prestigious district until the 1990's.  copacabana was followed by ipanema, where prices were even higher in the 2000's.  today, leblon is the most expensive area in rio. 

in addition to these three neighborhoods, there are 14 other disstricts in zona sul, all offering a great variety of real estate properties - generally more expensive than equivalent properties in other areas of the city.