Brazil’s federal government prepares mega sale of real estate starting this month

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian government owns about 750,000 properties nationwide, much of which is unused, encroached upon, or simply in irregular commercial use.

These range from land and apartments in the best cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to farms and land throughout the country.

Many of these assets ended up in the federal government’s hands because of unpaid financing, fines, and other pending legal issues. A purge has filtered out properties that can now be made available and sold.

Later this month, a mega auction will be held for the properties mapped in Rio de Janeiro. “It’s a pilot project where interested parties can access details about the assets using QR codes,” says Diogo Mac Cord, special secretary for privatization, divestment, and market at the Ministry of Economy.

Next up will be São Paulo and other cities like Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, and Porto Alegre. In São Paulo, the supply of large plots of land in prime areas should attract investors. One of the icings on the cake is likely to be two properties in the area of Avenida Juscelino Kubitschek and Avenida Chedid Jafet in Itaim Bibi.

They face each other and have a total area of 17,000 square meters – the land in the area has a commercial value of about R$ 11,000 per square meter.

MARITIME SHORELAND TO BE SOLD

Starting this month, owners of real estate located on the coast can take advantage of the so-called foreclosure decree through an application, the SPUApp, created to facilitate the process. According to the Ministry of Economics, those interested in acquiring the “terrenos de marinha” (maritime shoreland) owned by the federal government under current law are entitled to a 25% discount on the sale price.

Initially, only cash payments will be accepted. By purchasing the Treasury’s share of the real estate, the owner will be exempt from paying the transfer fee (“laudêmio”) and the annual occupation fees (“foro”) .

In Rio de Janeiro, 4,137 properties were included in the program’s first phase, with a revenue potential of R$165 million. According to the government, about 300,000 properties will be affected nationwide. The measure is expected to generate 5 billion reais by the end of 2022.