70,000 construction workers in Recife, Pernambuco entered into strike on Monday 31st October demanding a 15 percent pay rise as well as more overtime rights and safety at work – leaving over 2,000 development projects in the city and part of the metropolitan region paralysed.
On 27th October 2011 in the Union Official Diary (Diário Oficial da União) – circular 3,561 of the Brazilian Central Bank, the new demands required by private banking institutions to be able to participate as agents for the My House, My Life (Minha Casa, Minha Vida) programme were confirmed. The aims of the new regulation are to establish an institutional environment that brings more security in the execution of the programme; to further open a market with unprecedented demand and to eliminate the deficit within the government target time frame of 2023.
Recently updated statistics released by research organisation Ibope Intelligence has indicated that residential Brazilian real estate prices have shown some initial signs of moving away from the rapid growth that has characterised market behavior in recent years.
A survey of companies undertaken by the Brazilian Association of Construction Materials (Abramat) showed that the number that plan to invest in the next 12 months has decreased by 71 percent in October compared to 77 percent in September.
Outline research on the open market values of Brazilian real estate affiliated to the Minha Casa, Minha Vida [My House, My Life] programme with the aim of seeing its effectiveness in dealing with the national housing deficit – particularly for the low income demographic which forms the majority (estimated at 6.7 million units according to the João Pinheiro Foundation although realistically there is strong evidence that the actual figure is significantly higher than this).
A new ´virtual outlet´ website – Promoimóveis – launched in Brazil 4 months ago promises to be able to offer Brazilian real estate at discounts of between 10 and 30 percent largely of distressed stock, initially in the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo regions.
The October 2011 statistics and graphs (released mid-month) with information related to Brazil’s real estate and land industry by clicking on the link above – including the property price variation index, OECD composite leading indicators, inflation statistics, the SELIC interest rate, housing / private / commercial sector lending, percentage changes in construction costs, consumer spending levels, consumer / industrial / business confidence, real earnings and unemployment.
Gafisa – Brazil’s leading property developer – has announced its intention to take a more conservative strategy moving into 2012, particularly as a result of the group’s exposure after the October 2008 acquisition of the Tenda low income housing company.
After one year and fourth months living under plastic sheeting in very basic living conditions, the provision of new homes for the Alagoas flood victims have been accompanied with what were previously unstated financial compromises. Now close to completion, the new housing units are only being allocated to those who are willing to pay 20 percent of their monthly salary (or R$ 50 for those earning up to one times the Brazilian minimum wage of R$ 545) – despite being promised as donations when the floods happened.
A recent announcement made by the Brazilian government run Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) has outlined a new methodology being undertaken to produce an index to monitor the country’s real estate prices. Whilst no date has been confirmed for initial publication, according to a press release by the IBGE: “The manner and procedures for which the index will be calculated for the sector are currently being discussed and will be based on the recommendations of countries and institutions that are already producing these types of indicators.”
