May 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.
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.
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.
April 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.
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”.
March 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.
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…
A recent initiative to construct 900 popular houses in Votorantim, São Paulo under the Minha Casa, Minha Vida (“My House, My Life”) donation initiative highlighted the fact that input costs have continued to show no sign of abating.
March 1st, 2012 by
Ruban Selvanayagam
1 Comment
A recent article in the Rio de Janeiro online “R7” magazine pointed to the growing number of people moving into favela regions of the city as a result of the inflationary pressures on rents and wider perceptions that, as a result of the recent pacification programmes, they have become safer to live in.
Recent commentary made by Nabil Georges Bonduki, professor of urban housing at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo (FAU-USP) indicated that the rapid rises in land prices have effectively negated Brazilian housing sector growth, most notably for low income groups.