President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) announced this Wednesday (15) an investment of R$ 20 billion for housing programs such as My Home, My Life. The source of resources is the Social Fund. An expansion of Reforma Casa Brasil, a program that subsidizes renovations, was also announced.
The announcements come as Lula seeks to increase his popularity with a view to re-election. Datafolha research released last week showed the president tied in voting intentions for the second round with Flavio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ).
The presentation made by the new Minister of Cities, Vladimir Lima, points to the following changes in the reform program:
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Increase from R$9,600 to R$13 thousand in the income range eligible for the program;
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Increase from R$30 thousand to R$50 thousand in the credit ceiling for renovations;
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The interest ceiling is reduced from 1.95% per month to 0.99% per month, and the repayment period increases from 60 months to 72 months (from five to six years).
The announcement was made by the government at an event at Palácio do Planalto with ministers and representatives of the construction industry. Lula gave a quick speech.
He complained about the interest rate level, and said that the Central Bank will lower the Selic if you look at the government’s actions.
“The Central Bank needs to look at what the Treasury did, what Planning did here. When Galípolo (Gabriel Galípolopresident of the Central Bank) comes back from his trip to Europe and I’m going to say ‘look here, the spending boys are reducing the money'”, said the President of the Republic.
The president said that the PT governments created Minha Casa, Minha vida to try to end the housing deficit, mentioned the capacity of construction to generate employment and spoke about the relationship between this sector of the economy and government projects.
“If we want to have full-time schools throughout Brazil, we cannot have the same standard of schools as we have today”, declared the president.
At the end of March, the Board of Trustees of FGTS (Service Time Guarantee Fund) approved the increase in maximum family income who can finance properties through Minha Casa, Minha Vida. The monthly family income limit for bracket 1 increased from R$2,850 to R$3,200. In bracket 2, the income ceiling went from R$4,700 to R$5,000, while in bracket 3 the values went from R$8,600 to R$9,600. The maximum value of family income allowed in bracket 4, aimed at the purchase of their own home by the middle class, rose from R$12 thousand to R$13 thousand.
The government’s focus is to encourage the purchase of their own home by the middle class, which faces a bottleneck due to rising interest rates and the scarcity of savings resources, one of the main sources of cheap financing for the real estate sector.
