Low-income housing in the city of São Paulo: history and diagnosis of growth

Abstract

Between 2016 and 2021, the city of São Paulo saw the low-income housing market grow from 3,600 to 35,700 units launched per year, a vertiginous growth of almost 1,000% in six years. In the same period, the medium and high-end markets grew 292%, from 15,800 to 46,100 units launched yearly. One of the hypotheses for this huge growth is the municipal Decree 57,377/16, which established new guidelines and incentives for the implementation of low-income housing in addition to the Strategic Master Plan (Municipal Law 16,050/14) and the Subdivision, Use and Occupation of the Land Law (Municipal Law 16.402/16). This first decree was of substantial importance for the growth of the segment in the city of São Paulo and the possible migration of these dwellings from peripheral regions within the city of São Paulo itself to central regions and from the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo to the state capital. The objective of this article is to understand the history of low-income housing in the city of São Paulo, how the low-income housing scenario was built, from its beginnings to the present day, and to diagnose how recent public initiatives have encouraged the production of low-income housing in the city of São Paulo.