BRAZIL TO SPEED UP MINHA CASA, MINHA VIDA

Yesterday (30th January), the Brazilian government announced that it wanted to speed-up the implementation of its flagship affordable homes scheme ‘Minha Casa, Minha Vida ’.
The national Minister for Planning, Miriam Belchior spoke to the media together with Jorge Heredia, President, Caixa Economica Federal and Guido Mantega, the Minister of Finance.

This happened following a high-level meeting with twenty leaders of the country’s construction industry. The purpose of the gathering was to exchange views and air problems about how the MCMV housing scheme could be expedited.

Following the conference the Minister reported that she and the other government officials had worked hard  with the industry representatives to identify problems and explore solutions . The main difficulties tended to include utility connection delays plus of course the slow processing of necessary paperwork in some cases to authorise the units for habitation.

To tackle these issues the Government has promised to be more pro-active in dealing with the city administrations of municipalities with over two hundred thousand people, plus a more streamlined relationship with 'ANEEL', Brazil’s national agency for electricity supply.

The aim in 2012 is for the latest phase of Minha Casa Minha Vida is to achieve a national total to date of over a million units nationwide, launched or completed. This figure would represent over 50% of the total projected by the target date of 2014.

For his part, the Finance Minister, Mr.Mantega emphasised yesterday how important the housing industry is for Brazil’s GDP. He also explained that so-called housing credit (loans) are expected to grow by over forty per cent this year, continuing the rate of expansion seen last year.