University of São Paulo: Unoccupied properties show dispute over housing in São Paulo
The democratization of access to housing enters the agenda of the research The mercantile heritage: the obstacles of idle properties in downtown São Paulo . According to the doctoral thesis of Ana Gabriela Akaishi, master and doctor, researcher at the Laboratory of Housing and Human Settlements at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU) at USP, the dynamics of the land market in São Paulo is related to the profile of the owners of these properties. .
The research starts from the hypothesis that properties without a social function are concentrated in the domain of a few owners. However, Ana Gabriela states that property ownership is dispersed: “In downtown São Paulo there is no concentration of properties in the hands of a few owners. The survey I carried out showed that 78% of the owners have a single property in the region”.
real estate retention
In view of this finding, the research was guided towards the profile of the owners of the properties from a sample of the 50 lands with the highest market value. “This empty land real estate with the highest market value in the center is not in the hands of the real estate and financial market, but is in the hands of the commercial capital of the rentier heirs and religious institutions, which represented 74% of the properties analyzed in the survey”, he explains. the researcher. The spaces mentioned show the historical and generational layers that involve the housing problem, the land structure and the complexity of the transformation of urban space in the area. According to the research, they are properties from traditional families whose genealogy dates back to the captaincy of São Vicente and the presence of the Portuguese Crown in the territory.
In a region of historical appropriation dispute, the motivations for the retention of properties were also studied. Among the assumptions of this conduct, she analyzed whether there is a lack of interest on the part of the owners or if they demonstrate their expectations of future appreciation of the properties. For her, the lack of connection between the administration of the properties and the real estate companies is “a problem that remains unsolved” and “there seems to be no interest on the part of the public authorities to try to find a way out of this”.
Housing Strategies in São Paulo
Public housing and urban development policies in the city of São Paulo since 2013 were implemented in an attempt to reactivate unoccupied properties. “They were not transformed into social housing, they became service, business buildings”, explains Ana Gabriela. The measures applied by the Municipal Department of Finance, such as the urban instrument Parcelamento, Edificação e Use Compulsórios, aim to redirect the use of idle properties in order to fulfill the social function of the property.
“The city of São Paulo has a scenario of enormous social inequality, which is still going in the opposite direction of sustainable development”, comments Ana Gabriela. Despite the strategies installed in the land sector, she points out about the city: “It needs resources for housing because, no matter how much you design housing programs and policies, if you don’t have resources and lines of financing for that, it becomes very difficult for the government to public can make it possible”.