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.
In another feature extracted from the Estadão news site series examining bureaucracy in Brazil, it is indicated that the property transfer process generally has a tendency to be more complex depending on the location within the country. In the central regions, for example, the majority of the necessary certifications are available via the internet and the property can be registered comfortably in an average of 15 days. However, as indicated by Marina Maccabelli – lawyer at Demarest & Almeida – processes can be delayed due to extra demands being made for the registration of mandatory certificates and other documentation.
April 16th, 2012 by
Ruban Selvanayagam
1 Comment
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.
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.
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.
The Construction Industry Union of São Paulo (SindusCon-SP) has recently stated its disagreement with government led statistics by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) – pointing to the fact that the country’s real estate construction sector grew by 4.8 percent in 2011 and not 3.6 percent.
Despite what looks set to be a continued deceleration of real estate launches, activity on Brazilian building sites remains relatively strong as many companies attempt deal with project backlogs. As a result, the rising numbers of deaths and injuries have been bringing major concerns on the back of increasing evidence of the lack of security, adherence to health & safety requirements, adequate training provision and supervision in addition to staff intimidation allegations.
