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The Brazilian Association of eal Estate Credit and Savings (Associação Brasileira de Crédito Imobiliário e Poupança, ABECIP) recently published lending statistics for 2011 as well as its expectations for 2012.

The last week of January 2012 saw the mass eviction of thousands of families residing in favelas (slums) in the Pinheirinho district of São José dos Campos, São Paulo state. Behind a smokescreen of bringing “security” as a result of the resistance, the heavy handedness of Brazil’s military police was well documented and can be viewed all over news sites and YouTube with residents being forcibly removed using tear gas bombs and rubber bullets in addition to regular beatings, police brutality and little opportunity to collect belongings prior to the swift commencement of demolitions – leaving huge senses of loss, irrationality and injustice.

Recent data released by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and the São Paulo Construction Industry Union (SindusCon-SP) demonstrated a drop in the number of labourers being contracted in the Brazilian real estate sector. With a 0.62 percent reduction of new positions in the marketplace, the sector had 3.124 million employed workers nationally at the close of November 2011.

As a result of Brazil´s hugely negligent construction industry practices related to environmental respect, should statistics indicated by the Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) be understood, based on 2010´s practices (when real estate activity was particularly high), from the waste created as a result of the construction of three buildings in Brazil there would be enough to construct an entirely new one.

As 2012 will mark the 5th year anniversary of the launch of the Brazilian government led Growth Acceleration Programme (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento, PAC), specialists speaking to Brazil’s “IG Economia” newspaper recently expressed their concerns related to the low economic growth directly related to the various infrastructure projects happening around the country.

Two press clippings (extracted in December 2011 from Brazil´s Folha newspaper) that demonstrate how the rapid growth of property prices in Brazil has filtered through to the country’s favela communities – with rental figures that are very arguably beyond feasible affordability levels of the country´s low income groups. Due to the existence of very few other housing options, most residents do not have any choice but to pay such sums for what are plainly appalling and sub-humane living conditions.

The Regional Council of Real Estate Agents in São Paulo (Creci-SP) has recently pointed out that rising rental figures are having a proportionate effect on the number of contracts not being renewed. According to José Augusto Viana from Creci-SP speaking to the Diário Comércio Industria: “when contracts expire, owners are asking for absurd prices which are beyond the means of the renter.”

After the 2011 events in Pernambuco, this week saw the initiation of more strikes by over 10,000 real estate construction workers on 100 building sites in the northern eastern state of Piauí on the basis of a salary readjustment that should have occurred in November 2011 – in addition demanding better working conditions, health plans and transportation vouchers.

A number of real estate specialists speaking to Brazil’s Terra news site have commented that the days of market euphoria – fuelled by high launch volumes and accumulated debt levels – are now clearly over and 2012 will be a year where construction companies will have to take significant caution.

January 2012 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.