Profits and votes: Entrepreneurs and the government in Brazilian housing policy

Abstract

After more than twenty years of low housing construction output, the housing policy recovered its momentum in the country with the ascent of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers' Party, PT) to the seat of the federal government. This article demonstrates - through the analysis of documents, interviews and research conducted with businessmen - that the impetus of such a state policy is a part of the PT electoral strategy, which is based on economic growth and the expansion of social programs. The research analyses the dovetailing of interests between the Lula (the Brazilian President from 2003 to 2010) administration and the civil construction business - the latter concerned with expanding its business, and the former with increasing the supply of jobs and the level of economic activity. This process culminated in the launching of the largest social housing program to be implemented in the country. Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life), is a project in whose planning building companies played a key role, performing feasibility studies and carrying out social housing projects.

Mobilising the Periphery: Brazil's My House My Life Programme and the Homeless Workers' Movement

“…MCMV is Brazil's largest ever federal housing programme. Together with the Programa de Acceleração (Acceleration Programme), MCMV is part of a larger, neo-developmentalist strategy pursued by former Workers' Party President Luis Ignacio 'Lula' da Silva to stimulate the economy while simultaneously addressing pressing social issues (Dias, 2015). The financial outlay for the programme is significant and grew with each of the three phases of the programme: phase one ran from 2009 to 2010 and constructed over 1 million housing units, with R$ 34 billion of funding allocated (Tatagiba, Claudia, and Teixeira, 2016: 4); the second phase ran from 2011 to 2014, with R$ 125.7 billion earmarked by the federal government for the construction of over 2 million housing units; and phase three began in 2015 with the aim of building a further 2 million plus housing units, with R$210 billion in funding to be provided (Brasil, 2016).…”

State-led housing development in Brazil and India: a machinery for enabling strategy?

“…The state-led housing is also initiated and pursued for various other purposes. In Brazil, MCMV was launched dovetailing interests between the Lula administration and the civil construction business -the latter concerned with expanding its business, and the former with increasing the supply of jobs and the level of economic activity (Dias, 2015). This rhymes with other Latin American countries and India where government efforts have concentrated in reinforcing home ownership to revive the housing market.…”