The Brazil Affordable Housing
Deficit
The affordable housing deficit
in Brazil is estimated at 7.2 million units, whilst informal urban settlements are growing four times faster
than the average, overall urban growth. Available data on housing and
land markets suggests that Brazil's urban land and housing markets have not been able to keep pace with housing
demand. In 2002 demand was estimated to be 1 million housing units per year.
Also see Affordable Housing Brazil
Affordable Housing Brazil Projects
Although the supply of affordable housing in cities across the country has
increased, much of this remains unaffordable for low or middle-income households. Formal sector housing is
affordable to households earning the equivalent of more than four times the minimum wage, but less than 50% of
the population falls within this category. Hitherto, a major barrier to house building has been the lack of
affordable finance; in terms of interest rates on commercial loans, Brazil has long been regarded as one of the
most expensive countries in Latin America.
This is now firmly set to change, with reforms currently under consideration by
the National Legislature. Once these reforms are in place, Brazil's enormous underlying assets can
be financed and it is predicted that this domino effect will unleash a sustained real estate
boom. The Brazilian government's Minister for Cities stated that 2005
was a year in which the federal government of Brazil applied record funding towards habitation – a total of
R$15.3 billion (US$6.7 billion).
The Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration will continue its effort to reduce
the country's housing deficit, estimated at 7.2 million homes, by concentrating on low-cost housing for
low-income families and middle class, affordable housing.
The Minister also announced that the target for 2006 is to reach R$18.6 billion
(US$8.1 billion) in housing investment.31 By 2006, driven by the record mortgage lending of approx £5 billion
(a figure that the banking industry predicts will increase again in 2007) the property development sector was
beginning to address the housing demands of the low and middle classes.
The director of the Brazilian Enterprise for Property Studies (EMBRAESP) Luiz
Paulo Pompeia concurs that this market sector has been neglected during the past six years but believes that
from 2007 it will recover, having become the sector with the largest deficit.
Improvements in housing and rural electricity programs have been among Brazil‟s
recent accomplishments.
The World Bank played a modest but catalytic role in these achievements through,
in particular, a US$502.5 million Housing Development Policy Loan that was approved in June 2005. This aims to
support the Government's efforts to improve access by the poor to better, serviced housing. The World Bank also
provided an additional Sustainability Loan of US$505 million to support Brazil's goal of balancing economic
growth with social development, plus the maintenance and improvement of environmental quality. The World Bank
also approved a US$501.25 million Road Transport Project to improve Brazil‟s federal road
infrastructure.
Source: Agencia Brazil
Source: World Bank – Project Information Document
World Bank: Low Income Housing in Latin America & The Caribbean, Jan
2007
Source: Agencia Brazil
Also
see Affordable Housing Brazil Affordable Housing Brazil
Projects
| 
Facebook
Digg
Delicious
Google Bookmarks
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Twitter
Technorati