Construction industry expects MCMV property prices to rise in June – 05/29/2023 – Market

The civil construction sector hopes that the price limits of properties included in the Minha Casa Minha Vida program will be raised during the first meeting of the FGTS Trustee Fund under the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the second half of June, said representatives of the industry this Monday (29).

Despite the values ​​having been high in the middle of last year, the sector continues to complain that cost increases continue to leave the housing program outdated and cited this Monday (29) data that showed a sharp drop in launches during the first quarter.

Residential property launches in the first quarter collapsed 44.4% in units compared to the last three months of last year and fell 30.2% compared to the beginning of 2022, according to data reported by the Brazilian Chamber of Construction Industry ( Cbic), this Monday. Meanwhile, sales also showed falls, but less intense, of 5.2% in the quarterly comparison and 9.2% on an annual basis.

The data pointed to 48,600 units launched in the first quarter, the lowest value since the second quarter of 2016, according to Cbic.

“The FGTS limit is no longer real, it is far out of date with the market reality”, said the president of the Cbic, José Carlos Martins, in a presentation to journalists. “Medium cities are the main problem of mismatched values,” he added.

Martins avoided mentioning the size of the difference or how much the industry is asking for a readjustment in the program, but stated that he believes that the revision of the MCMV ceiling values ​​should at least include the inflation accumulated by the construction industry since the last revision by the FGTS Curator Fund , last year.

The participation of the housing program, which was already over 50% of the total launched by the sector, ended March at 35%, with launches down 49% compared to the end of last year and down around 42% compared to the first quarter from 2022.

The Civil Construction National Index (Sinapi), calculated by the IBGE and a measure of inflation in the sector, showed an increase of 8.05% in April in 12 months.

NEW TRACK

In addition to the readjustment in the ceiling of properties that can join the MCMV, which in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro is around R$ 270 thousand, Cbic also defends the creation of a provisional band in the program, a kind of ” range 4″, involving amounts above the maximum ceiling of the MCMV but which could also be financed with FGTS resources.

“That would give the market normality. There are many products launched in limbo”, said the executive. He referred to properties that do not even fit into the MCMV because their prices are higher than the program’s limits, as well as those that cannot be financed by the SBPE due to high interest rates and difficulty in obtaining credit for the population.

And this downward trend in launches, observed for some quarters by the Cbic, should end up reaching the sector’s employment level “in the second half or in 2024”, Celso Petrucci, president of the entity’s real estate industry commission, said during the interview.

According to Petrucci, in addition to the uncertainties and credit difficulties, the delay in defining new rules for the MCMV and the Trustee Fund is serving to hold back sales and also projects by developers. “That the Board of Trustees has to take into account as well.”