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90 construction workers on a Minha Casa, Minha Vida (“My House, My Life”) building site in São José do Rio Preto, in the Fernandópolis region of São Paulo were recently found working in conditions that have been described as akin to “slavery”. The project has subsequently been embargoed and the local Public Ministry for Labour has initiated an investigation related to a wide range of irregularities whilst ordering the termination of all contracts.

Brazil’s Gafisa real estate group has announced that it will be re-launching stock under its “Tenda” brand – marketing approximately 3,000 units in 2012 with an aggregated gross development value of between R$ 300 and R$ 400 million. Units are expected be sold at the next Caixa Econômica Federal fair (mid-May) at a minimum of R$ 94,000.

A recent report by the Curitiba news site “Gazeta do Povo” has pointed to a disproportionate number of new housing units being delivered with a range of problems including holes in masonry, badly completed painting, poor quality / uneven flooring, gutters problems, leaks and damaged doors. The developments have fallen under the scope of the Minha Casa, Minha Vida (“My House, My Life”) programme and have been valued at around the R$ 150,000 open market price range.

Recent research undertaken by UOL Brasil demonstrated evidence of what have been termed as “political calculations” in the allocation of government funding for the affordable housing initiative Minha Casa, Minha Vida (“My House, My Life”) – based on the analysis of 2,582 Brazilian municipalities of less than 50,000 habitants.

The Estadão news site recently published a number of feature articles and case studies examining the debilitating issue of bureaucracy in Brazil – addressing a range of sectors from customer services to health and inheritance. This blog post provides an outline of the salient points made in relation to the granting and execution of credit finance.

A recent article in Brazil´s Exame magazine has indicated that favela (urban slum) communities located close to the luxury areas of Rio de Janeiro have been witnessing what has been termed an “explosion” of real estate values as a result of the removal of the drug cartels via pacification programmes (which continue throughout the city in the build up to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games).

The ongoing financial difficulties of one of Brazil´s former prominent real estate developers – Gafisa – were confirmed in the form of reported a liquid loss of R$ 1.093 billion in 2011 (compared to a liquid profit of R$ 416.1 million in 2010).

It was announced on Thursday 28th March that the US-based Equity International group has acquired a “significant share” of the Paraná based developer Thá (the exact figure was not revealed). Established in 1895, the Thá’s operations are based in Paraná and Santa Catarina and the group has developed over 2,000 residential, commercial, industrial and hotel real estate projects.

Amongst the increasingly wider consensus that the current cycle of Brazil´s real estate market has finally peaked, many commentators often forget the sheer size of the country and that each of the 27 states has its own specific characteristics related to population size, demand, demographic makeup, infrastructure and existing stock...

The recent evictions and mass displacements of favela residents in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have served to demonstrate the extremely lagged nature of Brazil´s affordable housing strategy – with most of the demographic having very few options beyond the bare boned compensatory packages offered when such situations occur. Some interesting points were recently made by Ermínia Maricato, professor of the architecture and urbanism faculty at the University of São Paulo related to the growth in the acquisition of electronic goods, motorbikes and cars by those living in precarious living conditions in sharp contrast with the lack of progress in effective housing reform for these groups. In an interview with the Rede Brasil Atual, which has been broadly translated below, Maricato – one of the brains behind the Minha Casa, Minha Vida (“My House, My Life”) programme – also commented that Brazilian urban housing reform is moving counter directionally and there is a need to initiate a “new fight”.