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.
The most recent research undertaken by Brazil’s Confederation of Industry (Confederação Nacional da Indústria, CNI) in partnership with the Construction Industry Chamber of Commerce (Câmara Brasileira da Indústria da Construção, CBIC) – referring to the first quarter of 2012 – published information related to general activity in the sector, employment levels, impending expectations, financial positioning and current profit levels of 437 development companies.
The latest figures from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation’s Brazilian Index of Construction Costs (Índice Nacional de Custo da Construção – Mercado, INCC-M) pointed to the average variation being 0.83 percent higher when comparing April to March – rising 7.94 percent since the same period of 2011.
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.
In the last week of March a strike and peaceful protest undertaken by the Ceará Construction Sector Industrial Union took place in the centre of Fortaleza amongst ongoing negotiations with regards to low pay and working conditions.
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”.
Brookfield Incorporations, Brazil’s 4th largest real estate development company, announced that launch values reached R$ 3.9 billion in 2011 – 32 percent more than in 2010 (half of this stock was launched in the last quarter of 2011).
The Brazilian Public Employment Ministry (Ministério Público do Trabalho) in conjunction with the Economic Rights Secretariat (Secretaria de Direito Econômico) have announced that they will be taking legal action against the housing developer MRV based on evidence of “suppressing workers rights on a large scale.”
Relying on the generally ambiguous nature of real estate statistics and mainstream media reporting in Brazil invariably brings a challenge in getting an accurate picture of what is truly happening. However, as well as blogs such as “Bolha Imobiliária” (“Property Bubble”), “Observador do Mercado” (“Market Observer”) and “Brazilian Bubble” another site that continues to grow in popularity for providing less bias standpoints is Ricardo Torres’ Trading Café – from which I have translated a recent post he made on the current market.
Please see a recent strongly targeted quote from political commentator Delio Nilton Tonin via the Observador Político website on the ongoing progress of the Minha Casa, Minha Vida (“My House, My Life”) programme…
