Government changes selection of Minha Casa, Minha Vida projects – 05/04/2023 – Market

The government is preparing a series of changes to Minha Casa, Minha Vida and plans to publish the first notices under the new format of the housing program by next week.

Among the innovations is a change in the contracting procedure to qualify, first, the land where the properties will be. The objective is to ensure that the program’s new premises of providing places closer to the centers and with adequate public infrastructure are followed.

Before, the selection was made with land already chosen by the builders and the respective projected housing units. Thus, companies ran the risk of planning a residential building that would end up disqualified for not following the program’s guidelines.

The number of hires per state will be proportionally divided in order to consider the housing deficit traditionally calculated in the country by the João Pinheiro Foundation, a teaching and research institution linked to the government of Minas Gerais.

The last calculation, from 2019 (before the pandemic), estimated the deficit at almost 5.9 million households across the country. The states with the biggest deficits are Amapá (17.8% of the total), Roraima and Maranhão (both with 15.2%).

In November, the Ministry of Cities will check which states have not been able to hire all possible units and carry out a redistribution.

Government will try to increase offer in cities with less than 50 thousand inhabitants

In addition, the folder is studying a way to serve municipalities with less than 50,000 inhabitants and which, because they are small, do not usually receive projects from construction companies.

The demand arose from a request by the National Congress and is already being studied by the government. The idea should stay for the second half.

In this case, the design envisaged so far is for city halls to take the lead in the process and qualify land and projects for housing construction.

The measure reduces the risk for companies, which will not need to buy land before the project is approved and will avoid spending resources on business prospecting.

In Minha Casa, Minha Vida, this is mostly done by builders, who see more profit opportunities in large urban centers, where the demand for housing is greater.

The idea for 2023 is to contract 100,000 units in Range 1, which receives the highest subsidies and serves people with lower incomes. The modality caters to families with a monthly income of up to R$2,640 in urban areas, or an annual income of up to R$31,680,000 in rural areas. The subsidy in this range can be up to 95% of the value of the property.

Of this total, 24,000 will go to homes in rural areas and 20,000 to Minha Casa, Minha Vida Entidades. This modality of the program delegates construction management to an organization that works in the struggle for housing. In other cases, it is the builders who do this.

As of 2024, the idea is to contract around 120,000 new homes per year, reaching a number of approximately 500,000 in Level 1 by the end of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) term. For the program as a whole, the goal is to hire 2 million new homes in the period.

The Ministry of Cities plans to implement, in the second half of the year, the first experiences linked to other novelties provided for by the MP (provisional measure) on the housing program, which provides for property renovations and also social rent.

In both cases, the idea is to be able to reuse idle Union properties. An example is the INSS (National Social Security Institute), which ends up with many units after lawsuits for social security debts.

Pilot projects will test the project’s ability to scale. In social rent, the idea is to help municipalities and states to offer programs based on the transfer of the property, and not with a direct subsidy for the payment of rent.

Minha Casa Minha Vida is one of the priorities of the Lula government and is part of the directive outlined by the president to rescue public policies aimed at the social area after the reduction of resources in previous governments. The program was relaunched by Lula in February this year, at a ceremony in Santo Amaro (BA).

Changes

Priority for land selection

Change in the contracting procedure to first approve the land where the properties will be located. The objective is to ensure that the new premises of providing places closer to the centers and with adequate public infrastructure are followed.

Town halls ahead

Pasta is studying a way to serve municipalities with less than 50,000 inhabitants, which do not usually receive projects from construction companies. Drawing so far is the municipalities taking the lead in the process and pre-approving land and projects for the construction of housing. Measure reduces the risk for companies