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FUNDAÇÃO GETULIO VARGAS
ESCOLA DE ADMINISTRAÇÃO DE EMPRESAS DE SÃO PAULO
HOUSING MICROFINANCE IN BRAZIL
An exploratory study
ELENA ZINS
SÃO PAULO
2021
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ELENA ZINS
HOUSING MICROFINANCE IN BRAZIL
An exploratory study
Dissertation presented to Escola de
Administração de Empresas de São Paulo of
Fundação Getulio Vargas, as a requirement to
obtain the title of Master in International
Management (MPGI).
Knowledge Field: International Economic and
Finance
Adviser: Prof. Dr. Lauro Emilio Gonzalez
Farias
SÃO PAULO
2021
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Zins, Elena.
Housing microfinance in Brazil : an exploratory study / Elena Zins. - 2021.
142 f.
Orientador: Lauro Gonzalez.
Dissertação (mestrado profissional MPGI) – Fundação Getulio Vargas, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo.
1. Finanças - Aspectos sociais. 2. Microfinanças. 3. Habitação - Brasil - Aspectos sociais. I. Gonzalez, Lauro. II. Dissertação (mestrado profissional MPGI) – Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo. III. Fundação Getulio Vargas. IV. Título.
CDU 336(81)
Ficha Catalográfica elaborada por: Isabele Oliveira dos Santos Garcia CRB SP-
010191/O
Biblioteca Karl A. Boedecker da Fundação Getulio Vargas - SP
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ELENA ZINS
HOUSING MICROFINANCE IN BRAZIL
An exploratory study
Thesis presented to Escola de Administração de
Empresas de São Paulo of Fundação Getulio
Vargas, as a requirement to obtain the title of
Professional Master in International
Management (MPGI).
Knowledge Field: International Economics
and Finance
Approval Date: 19/01/2021
Committee members:
_____________________________________
Prof. Dr. Lauro Emilio Gonzalez Farias
_____________________________________
Prof. Dr. Edgard Elie Roger Barky
_____________________________________
Prof. Dr. Tânia Pereira Christopoulos
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Lauro Emilio Gonzalez, for helping me to achieve
another important milestone in my academic journey.
I would like to express my extreme gratitude to the professionals who accepted to dedicate
some of their time to share their experience, knowledge and opinions with me, as well as
providing me some guidance for my research for some of them. The interviews conducted gave
me invaluable material for this research.
My sincere thanks also go to my friends and my housemates for their patience when hearing
my countless concerns, complains and doubts related to my thesis the nine last months.
Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to my family, especially my mother, which has
been unconditionally supporting me in every aspect of my academic journey at FGV-EAESP,
despite the long distance between my home country and Brazil.
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Abstract
The housing deficit and lack of access to credit, notably for the low-income populations, are
striking problems in emerging countries, especially in Brazil. The fiscal pressure on public
housing programs is increasing, what suggests new solutions must be implemented to alleviate
this problem.
Housing microfinance is an embryonic but promising market-based practice that could at least
partly meet the vast demand for housing finance among low-income populations in Brazil.
In this context, this thesis aims at exploring the challenges of housing microfinance expansion
in the specific context of Brazil. The methodological approach of this study was to collect both
qualitative data. The interviews combined with the secondary data enabled us to provide an
overview of the current housing microfinance initiatives in the country, of the market gap that
could be filled, of challenges impacting its development as well as expected future development
in the market.
The results indicate that despite the existence of a market gap that could be filled by housing
microfinance and some small-scale success examples of the practice in the country, there is a
conjunction of politic, socio-economic and regulatory factors hindering the development of
housing microfinance. Overall, experts do not believe there will be an expansion of housing
microfinance in Brazil, at least in the near future. The paper ends by outlining key avenues for
future research.
Keywords: financial inclusion, housing microfinance, housing deficit, low-income populations
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Resumo
O déficit habitacional e a falta de acesso ao crédito, em particular para as populações de baixa
renda, são problemas alarmantes nos países emergentes, especialmente no Brasil. A pressão
fiscal sobre os programas habitacionais públicos está aumentando, o que sugere que novas
soluções devem ser implementadas para aliviar este problema.
O microfinanciamento habitacional é uma prática baseada no mercado embrionária, mas
promissora que poderia, pelo menos em parte, atender à vasta demanda por financiamento
habitacional entre as populações de baixa renda no Brasil.
Neste contexto, esta tese visa explorar os desafios da expansão das microfinanças habitacionais
no contexto específico do Brasil. A abordagem metodológica deste estudo foi a de coletar dados
qualitativos. As entrevistas combinadas com os dados secundários nos permitiram fornecer uma
visão ampla da atual oferta e demanda de microfinanças habitacionais no Brasil, de vários
aspectos que impactam seu desenvolvimento, assim como o desenvolvimento futuro esperado
no mercado.
Os resultados indicam que apesar da existência de uma lacuna no mercado que poderia ser
preenchida pelas microfinanças habitacionais e alguns exemplos de sucesso em pequena escala
da prática no país, existe uma conjunção de fatores políticos, sócio-econômicos e regulatórios
que dificultam o desenvolvimento das microfinanças habitacionais. Em geral, os especialistas
não acreditam que haverá uma expansão das microfinanças habitacionais no Brasil, pelo menos
no futuro próximo. A pesquisa termina delineando as principais vias para pesquisas futuras.
Palavras-chave: inclusão financeira, microfinanças habitacionais, déficit habitacional,
populações de baixa renda
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Table of contents
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 12
2. Literature review on Housing Microfinance ..................................................................... 13
a. Definition ...................................................................................................................... 14
b. Function and impacts .................................................................................................... 17
c. Constraints and challenges ............................................................................................ 22
d. Factors for housing microfinance expansion ................................................................ 24
e. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 26
3. Housing Microfinance in the Brazilian context ................................................................ 27
a. Microfinance ................................................................................................................. 27
b. Housing deficit .............................................................................................................. 33
c. Housing financing options for low-income households ................................................ 36
d. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 42
4. Overall view of housing and HMF Experiences in Latin America................................... 43
a. Housing deficit .............................................................................................................. 44
b. Loan and mortgage context ........................................................................................... 53
c. Assessment of housing policies ..................................................................................... 57
d. Microfinance ................................................................................................................. 62
e. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 66
5. Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 66
6. Empirical results ............................................................................................................... 71
a. The current state of the practice .................................................................................... 71
b. Legal Framework .......................................................................................................... 76
c. Market gap ..................................................................................................................... 77
d. Challenges ..................................................................................................................... 80
e. Best practices ................................................................................................................. 88
f. Future perspectives ........................................................................................................ 89
g. Policy recommendations ............................................................................................... 90
h. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 91
7. Concluding remarks .......................................................................................................... 92
8. References ......................................................................................................................... 95
9. Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 104
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List of tables
Table 1: Housing microfinance products profiles .................................................................... 15
Table 2: Summary of the best practices of housing microfinance using the framework of
Escobar and Merrill, crossed with other researches ................................................................. 16
Table 3: Data on Microcredits in Brazil ................................................................................... 32
Table 4: Rules of the program My House My Life .................................................................. 37
Table 5: Population living in slums (as % of the urban population) ........................................ 46
Table 6: Cross-country comparison of housing urban deficit in 1995, 2006 and 2009 ........... 48
Table 7: Cross-country comparison of housing urban deficit qualitative components in 1995,
2006 and 2009 .......................................................................................................................... 49
Table 8: Housing Deficit by Income Quintiles in 2009 ........................................................... 50
Table 9: Qualitative deficit in Latin America around 2015 ..................................................... 51
Table 10: Future housing needs in Latin America ................................................................... 53
Table 11: Mortgage Interest Rates in Latin American and Caribbean Countries, 2010
(percentage) .............................................................................................................................. 56
Table 12: Market share of government-sponsored credit institutions in real estate lending in
select Latin American countries ............................................................................................... 57
Table 13: Gross Loan Outstanding – Breakdown by categories (in million) ........................... 65
Table 14: Number of Loan Outstanding – Breakdown by Categories (in thousands) ............. 65
Table 15: List of Experts interviewed ...................................................................................... 71
Table 16: Mapping of the existing offer ................................................................................... 72
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List of figures
Figure 1: Framework for understanding the business case for housing microfinance ............. 26
Figure 2: Units delivered, through the program My House My Life ....................................... 38
Figure 3: Mortgage Depth ........................................................................................................ 54
Figure 4: Housing Loan penetration ......................................................................................... 55
Figure 5: Housing programs in Latin America and the Caribbean .......................................... 59
Figure 6: Microfinance penetration .......................................................................................... 63
Figure 7: Microfinance Gross Loan Portfolio .......................................................................... 64
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List of Acronyms and Terms
ABRAINC Brazilian Association of Real Estate Developers
BNDES National Bank for Economic and Social Development
ETGF Employment Time Guarantee Fund
HMF Housing Microfinance
MFI Microfinance Institution
MCMV My House My Life
NGO Nongovernmental Organization
PNMPO National Program of Oriented Productive Microcredit
HMFI Housing Microfinance Institution
LIH Low-income Households
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1. Introduction
In the 1990s and early 2000s, housing policies in South America shifted from state-based to
market-based solutions (Datta & Jones, 1999 in Grubbauer, 2018). Structural adjustment
policies imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund contributed to
develop housing finance systems and promote homeownership. Latin America can be
considered as a pioneer in housing microfinance and inspired the world with the success stories
of MiBanco in Peru and BancoSol in Bolivia (Ferguson, 2008).
Brazil did not take this path and housing microfinance is still virtually non-existent, although
the housing deficit for low-income population is important. First through the Government
Severance Indemnity Fund for Employees (FGTS), and since its creation in 2009, through the
housing program My House My Life, the government has provided to low-income households
loans, which cannot properly be labelled as microcredits due to a number of factors as the very
high level of subsidizes (Ferguson, 2008). However, these state programs, offering very
advantageous loan conditions, almost completely undermined commercially-viable
microfinance institutions in Brazil (Ferguson, 2008). As stated Ramezanali and Assadi (2018,
p60), “after more than a decade of state-based policies supported by a buoyant commodity
market that turned out finally to be a kind of Dutch Disease and the worst economic
crisis since the 1930s, Brazil seems to consider more private and market-based initiatives
for eradicating poverty.” This crisis embodied the opportunity for microfinance to flourish and
catch up with some of its neighbouring countries, which had developed significantly more
proportionally. Since 2015, as Brazil weathered a political crisis, and is now going through a
recession, the government disposes less liquidities for social assistance, anti-poverty and credit
programs. In that context, housing microfinance could reveal as an effective solution to alleviate
housing problems, solve a market failure and relieve the burden of the state of its housing
programs.
Housing microfinance has the potential to help solving a critical problem in developing
countries: the lack or poor state of housing for low- and moderate-income population. This
practice can be described as “small, non-mortgage-backed loans offered in succession to
support the existing incremental building practices of low-income population” (Habitat for
Humanity, 2019). The borrowed funds are typically allocated for self-help home improvements
and expansion, but also for new constructions of basic core units (Ferguson, 2000). This
practice meets more adequately the needs of this population strata.
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The objective of this thesis is to understand the challenges relative to housing microfinance
expansion in Brazil. As it happened in other Latin American countries, housing microfinance
could take over state-housing programs, which would create a financially sustainable housing
financing option for low-income population, as well as generate economic growth, from the
perspective of the state and the borrowers. However, the practice has developed less than in
other countries of the area, such as Peru with MiBanco and Bolivia with BancoSol. It seems
relevant to attempt to assess the challenges of HMF specific to the Brazilian context.
The proposed study seeks at filling a research gap on the challenges to the development of HMF
initiatives in Brazil, by providing an overview on the current supply and demand, the factors
influencing the development of the practice in Brazil as well as future perspectives. No study
tackled this issue in the Brazilian context so far. The closest study in this context which can be
cited is the study of Cities Alliance and the City of São Paulo in 2007, assessing the potential
of housing microfinance in São Paulo state. Since then, many factors changed such as the
creation of My House My Life, the regulation and the economic context.
In order to impact how the expansion of housing microfinance would impact the country, the
research question will be the follow:
What are the challenges relative to the expansion of housing microfinance in Brazil?
In exploring the research question, we will aim at understanding:
• The current state of the practice in Brazil
• The challenges related to the development of housing microfinance
• Its perspective of development
Although the literature concerning housing microfinance is rich, the importance and originality
of the study is that it crosses the practice of housing microfinance with the Brazilian context.
2. Literature review on Housing Microfinance
In this first subsection, we will attempt at providing to the reader an exhaustive overview of the
theoretical framework of HMF and some more practical elements on its successes, failures, and
challenges.
In the last two decades, there has been an increasing interest in for this topic. Nevertheless,
major research in the topic was published about twenty years ago and the relevance of the
findings in the current context, which has evolved considerably since, is questionable. Lastly,
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some significant research gaps have been identified in the topic, such as the immediate impact
of HMF (Grubbauer, 2018).
a. Definition
In Housing Microfinance: Toward a Definition, Daphnis (2004) defines housing microfinance
as “a discrete area of practice that intersects housing finance and microfinance”1. This approach
emerged to fill the gap created by the limitations of housing finance and the revolution of
microfinance. Mortgage lending never offered financially viable options for low-income
populations: impoverished people could not afford to borrow enough to finance a complete
home unless the repayments were stretched over a long period of time. The terms of the lending
not fitting the repayment abilities of base of the pyramid households, the default risk was too
high for financial institutions. To fill this void, governments of developing countries attempted
at creating non-commercial schemes for the financing of complete homes for poor people.
Although these programs can be effective in a specific national context, they tend to be
excessively bureaucratic and have never reached enough efficiency to lead to worldwide
replication (Daphnis, 2004). The revolution in microfinance provided empirical evidences that
economically active poor people can repay their loan. Housing microfinance has emerged based
on the potential that microfinance could go beyond income-generating uses – microenterprises
- to personal asset building.
In this context, housing microfinance can be more practically described as “small, non-
mortgage-backed loans offered in succession to support the existing incremental building
practices of low-income population” (Habitat for Humanity, 2017). Incremental building
accounts for up to 90% of residential development in developing countries and follows the
following pattern: acquisition of a lot, building a small core unit, and expanding and improving
the core unit (Habitat for Humanity, 2014).
According to Ferguson (2004), this practice appears as an intermediate step in interest rate,
term, form of collateral/guarantee, and other respects between housing finance and
microfinance. The table below is presenting the product profiles of HMF products.
1 Daphnis, F., Housing Microfinance: Toward a Definition In Daphnis, F., Ferguson, 2004, Housing
Microfinance: A guide to practice, 2004, Kumarian Press Inc
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Table 1: Housing microfinance products profiles
Source: Habitat for Humanity (2014)
Kohn & Von Pischke (2011) distinguish three broad categories of HMF institutions:
• Traditional microfinance providers (MFIs) that started offering microcredit to
microenterprises and added housing microcredit to their product line. Grameen Bank in
Bangladesh, MiBanco in Peru or ProCredit in Serbia followed this pattern.
• Traditional mortgage banks or commercial banks that serve the mainstream retail
market but have downscaled by introducing housing microloans. The mortgage financer
HDFC in India is an example of a successful mortgage lender which launched a housing
microfinance program in 1987.
• Specialist housing microfinance providers (HMFIs) that focus exclusively on housing
microloans. This category encompasses commercial housing microlenders, NGO
housing microlenders as well as building material suppliers who sell on credit.
Regarding product design, previous empirical studies on HMF provide an overview on the best
practices of the industry. Escobar & Roe Merrill (2004) summarized the current practices in
HMF. As their paper has been published 16 years ago, we can imagine that the practices of the
industry changed in the meantime. For this reason, we will use the pattern of these authors and
cross it with other, preferably more recent, studies to ensure the cited practices are still in effect
(Table 2).
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Table 2: Summary of the best practices of housing microfinance using the framework of Escobar and Merrill, crossed with
other researches
Source: Table elaborated by the author
Although this paper is sixteen years old, it seems that most practices cited did not change. Since
then, no author constructed an exhaustive summary of the current practices of HMF.
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b. Function and impacts
Housing microfinance holds importance on two perspectives: (1) to meet the demand for
housing financing of the impoverished people in emerging countries who are excluded from the
conventional lending practices and (2) to contribute to the development of financial institutions
who have low-income people as a significant share of their client base, especially microfinance
institutions (Ferguson, 2004).
To begin with, we can claim that housing microfinance is important, as it fills a market void
created by the failure of traditional mortgage finance to meet the need of the low-income
consumers. At most, in middle-income countries, a third of households has access to mortgages
(Porteous, 2011). In low-income countries, this proportion is much lower. Ferguson (2004)
explained this market void by the following factors:
• Real interest rates are generally high (more than 10%) and lead to high debt
service
• Long-term funding on domestic markets in emerging countries are generally
unavailable, which creates interest-rate risk for mortgage lending and greatly
limits the supply of mortgage money
• Formal-sector systems are expensive, including those for registry of property
rights, land-use development, and property transfer taxes, what push most low-
moderate-income families into the informal sector
• The poor functioning of rental markets makes home rental an undesirable or
unavailable option for low-income households in developing countries, while it
is the norm in developed countries
• Long-term debt is conflicting survival strategies of low-income households –
especially working in the informal sector – which face revenues instability
• The fiscal capacity of most governments to fund the subsidies necessary for
affordable housing projects is declining
Facing the lack of financing options, low income households generally spread the costs of
housing over long timespan rather than trying to pay for a complete unit upfront as it generally
occurs for middle-class families in developed countries. They typically afford home ownership
through self-home building over a time span of 5 to 20 years (Ferguson, 2003). Research also
highlighted that low-income families tend to prefer incrementally improving their home than
buying a new property elsewhere, as they would lose the social capital of their relationships
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with families and friends in the neighbourhood (Ferguson, 2004). However, traditional
commercial banks generally only provide loans for new commercially built units.
Furthermore, in developing countries, homeownership is particularly important. For a large
share of low-income people in the developing world, it is the most important asset they will
ever own. Owning their home serves as a shelter against life uncertainties such as illness,
unemployment, and highly fluctuating income (Ferguson, 2004), as well as family inheritance
(Bonduniba, 2016). In addition, as exposed Daphnis (2004), home can constitute a productive
asset for the home-based microentrepreneurs. For these reasons, the homeownership rate is
generally high in developing countries, although mortgage finance is much less advanced than
it is in developed countries.
In the view of MFIs, there is a preference for homeownership among the lowest socioeconomic
groups which can trigger their willingness to access affordable finance.
In addition, research has showed that 20% of microentrepreneurs microcredits are already
directed to home improvement (Habitat for Humanity, 2019). When housing microfinance is
not an option, poor borrowers make the rational choice of recurring to productive microcredits
to finance their home improvements as it offers better repayment terms than do informal sources
of money lending, such as loan sharks (Daphnis, 2004). The effective interest rate on small
loans in the informal credit market is about 100% per year and can be even higher for very
small loans (Schmidt, 2010). Furthermore, microenterprise microfinance represents a way for
families to invest in their productive activity thanks to these supplementary funds, while
keeping their savings for home improvements. The expansion of HMF would properly answer
a need that already exists.
Furthermore, housing microfinance can contribute to the development of financial institutions
that have low/moderate households as part of their clients such as microfinance institutions
(Ferguson, 2004). The larger amount, longer terms and lower delinquency rates of housing
microfinance in comparison to microfinance for entrepreneurs can help microfinance
institutions to increase their profitability and diversify their risk, if costs can be kept under
control (Schuman, 2004). Besides, the addition of housing microfinance products can
“differentiate an institution, improve branding, and lead to crossselling of other products”
(SEEP, 2014, p20). It represents an opportunity for existing MIFs to scale up through the
increase of loan volume in a market where microenterprise microfinance is saturated (Ferguson,
2003).
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In addition, housing microfinance can have an impact on the macro-level. If we consider
housing microfinance is a housing financing option for some low-income households that
would otherwise have no access to housing financing, it can lead to renovation, expansion and
construction projects that would otherwise not see the light of the day, and thereby boost the
housing industry. In the 70s, we observed a shift of opinion towards the housing industry:
initially perceived as a social expenditure and drag on growth, it has increasingly been seen as
a growth contributor (Harris & Arku, 2006). Indeed, the housing industry affects economic
development through many aspects, being a major employer with large multiplier effects. This
industry, encompassing building materials, construction, real estate and financial industries,
generally represents 9% of jobs in the economy worldwide (Ferguson, 2003). As we observed
in the United States in 2001 and 2002, it also contributes to help economies find their way out
of recession (Ferguson, 2003). However, in many developing economies, the mortgage market
is small and the housing microfinance market underdeveloped, making the housing industry
minor. The democratization of housing microfinance could change this paradigm and unlock
this as-yet-untapped potential.
According to Prior and Argandoña (2008), there is a close relationship between the level of
economic development of a country and the level of development of its financial system.
Indeed, many empirical studies suggest that the development of the financial system promote
economic growth, particularly in emerging countries (King & Levine 1993, Demirguc ̧-Kunt
& Maksimovic 1996, Rajan & Zingales 1998, Beck & al. 2000).
Overall, housing microfinance is believed to be a growth contributor, but there is a research gap
on the impact of housing microfinance on poverty alleviation.
Initially perceived as ethically progressist, microfinance came under heavy criticisms the past
years. An evident example of the conflict between commercial and developmental aspirations
is the successful IPO of the Mexican-based microfinance institution Compartamos (Hudon &
Sandberg, 2013). This success resulted from the strategy of the MFI to charge excessive interest
rate to the borrowers, which thereby made Compartamos highly profitable. Other MFIs have
been accused of using exploitative lending techniques which were pushing borrowers into “debt
traps”. The effectiveness of microfinance towards poverty alleviation started to be called into
question. In some cases, these criticisms led to a severe political reaction. For example, in
Ecuador, India and Nicaragua, the authorities closed branches of large MFIs. Also, in more than
forty developing countries, we observed the introduction of mandatory interest rates ceilings to
prevent MFIS of using abusing pricing practices. These scandals highlight the difficulty of
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reconcile conflicting interest for for-profit MIFs, namely being profitable while offering fair
microcredit terms.
In developing countries, most of the poor, especially women, lack access to basic financial
services which are necessary for them to manage their life and break the vicious circle of
poverty which is characterised by low incomes, low savings and low investments. Muhammad
Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, claimed that access to credit should be considered a
human right as it will help to put “poverty in museums”2. A growing body of literature has
investigated the socio-economic impact of microfinance: the results are mixed.
Pitt & Khander (1998) found a significant positive effect on the overall level of wellbeing of
poor households, measured by some indicators such as schooling of children, especially when
the woman is the participant of the program. Some studies suggest that microfinance
contributed importantly to the income generation activity (Samer & al, 2015) but had modest
impact on other indicators such as education, health or female empowerment (Kondo & al,
2008; Setboonsarng,& Parpiev, 2008). Some other studies contradict these results and find a
positive relationship between microfinance and children education (Holvoet, 2003; Noreen &
al, 2011). Many other studies show, however, that the effects of microfinance on alleviating
poverty are relatively small, or even non-existent (Duvendack & Palmer-Jones, 2012; Hermes,
2014; Ali & Mughal, 2019). According to Remazanali & Assadi (2018), microfinance is an
effective tool for poverty alleviation for the less severe poverty cases, but with limited impact
on core poverty. Another analysis, from Morduch (1998), is that microfinance does not reduce
poverty, but vulnerability, by increasing resilience of poor households.
Remazanali & Assadi (2018) intended to answer to this question using Brazil as case study.
They conclude their paper on the fact that microfinance contributed to mitigate socioeconomic
disparities, through the generation of jobs and income, but fail to significantly alleviate poverty
due to low coverage. The authors outline that the outcome of microfinance is highly dependent
to the economic and political context. Their study focused on productive microcredits, which
is the most common type of microfinance in Brazil.
All the studies mentioned in the two last paragraphs are generally focusing on productive
microcredits, the most common type of microfinance. Some can argue that the results of these
research are not relevant for housing microfinance, however we believe they are interesting
2 Yunus, M., (2006) Nobel Lecture, URL: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2006/yunus/26090-
muhammad-yunus-nobel-lecture-2006-2/
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insights on the topic. Indeed, as mentioned earlier, it has been proven that 20% of productive
microcredits are actually directed to home improvement (Habitat for Humanity, 2019). Besides,
productive microcredits also allow families to save more funds for home improvement, which
means the impact of general microfinance can be relevant as it is closely related to housing
microfinance. Only one study aiming at assessing the impact of HMF towards poverty has been
identified so far. The findings suggest that HMF has a positive impact on home improvements
and the delivery of affordable houses to the LIHs, as well as on household empowerment
encompassing the dimensions of financial inclusion, social inclusion and economic security
(Odongo, 2016). Nevertheless, Odongo’s findings must be considered carefully as the diversity
of MFIs practices require additional empirical evidences to properly assess the link between
HMF and poverty alleviation.
Bondinuba & al (2020) argues that the application of microenterprise finance concepts in HMF
can be very detrimental to the lowest socioeconomic groups. In conventional microenterprise,
microloans are granted to acquire more capital, expand the business, and ultimately lead to a
business income increase. However, in the case of HMF, the funds are directed to the
improvement of a house which does not generate any income to reimburse the loan, pushing
the borrower into the debt trap. The pressure of the debt repayment can lead borrowers to recur
to alternative sources of funding only to reimburse the initial microloan. Besides, the cost and
prices of building material may be very unstable in developing economies, resulting from
external macro-factors. Also, countries with unpredictable and regularly escalating inflation
induce concerns to both MIFs and the poorest of the poor borrowers. Lastly, regulations
concerning urban development may also evolve due to the fast urbanisation, which can lead the
low-income borrowers to lose their land for new developments.
As said Bertrand Renaud, former senior housing finance advisor for the World Bank, housing
microfinance is continually facing the challenge of reconciling “three particularly conflicting
objectives: affordability for the households, viability for the financial institutions, and resources
mobilization for the expansion of the sector”3
Grubbauer (2019) outlines the lack of academic research on the impact of housing
microfinance, from both the perspectives of the housing market and the households of the
3 Renaud, B. cited in Reckford, J., Step by step: supporting incremental building through housing microfinance,
Habitat for Humanity, Shelter Report, 2014, URL:
https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/2014_shelter_rpt_final.pdf
22
borrower. The author claimed that there is no sufficient evidence ensuring the social impacts of
housing microfinance envisioned by the industry, namely “largely improving quality of life and
happiness, sanitation and health, and security of tenure” (Habitat for Humanity, 2015, p. 27).
c. Constraints and challenges
In this section, we will discuss some inherent constraints and challenges that MFIs, investors,
and clients face that are prohibitive to the full realisation of the market opportunities of HMF
portfolios in the low-income housing market.
Prior & Argandoña (2009) identified four factors hampering the development of microfinance
in developing countries. They defend the position that the lack of access to financial services in
developing countries is mainly due to a supply problem. According to them, “the business
models used by the financial institutions operating in these countries are inadequate and
inefficient, as they are unable to profitably serve the low-income segments.” (p.354). Although
these factors are referring to general microfinance, they are applicable to HMF and provide
valuable insights on current issues for the expansion of HMF. The first of these factors is the
high cost and price of financial services. Indeed, the weak financial penetration is closely related
to the low overall level of efficiency, due to high operating costs and to the scarce presence of
active financial institutions. These institutions are stimulated to serve only high-income client
due to the low level of competition. Secondly, they reported a geographical issue. The density
of bank branches is low in developing countries as the potential customers in these areas are
low-income and do not generate sufficient income to cover the costs of traditional bank
branches. Thirdly, Prior & Argandoña (2009) reported that there is a lack of appropriate
methodologies for analysing credit risks. The low level of bancarization and the vast informal
economy makes difficult in collecting credit history and repayment, and thus estimate the credit
risks. Fourthly, they identified the lack of an appropriate regulatory framework for microfinance
is an obstacle to its spread, as it generates high regulation costs, complex bureaucratic
requirements and variation from country to country. These issues are maximized by the diverse
nature of MFIs (NGOs, social enterprises, financial institutions). Nonbanks MFIs are not
subjected to the financial regulation followed by central banks and are not eligible financial
intermediaries, which prevent them from diversifying their products, such as offering saving
accounts (Arun, 2005). An appropriate regulatory framework creates the conditions for a MFIs
to expand and reach financial sustainability through subsidizes.
23
Several authors support the hypothesis that market saturation can negatively impact MFIs
portfolios, which is apparent because of expanding credit in the saturated market to the pool of
borrowers, thereby deteriorating portfolio quality, and with that raising exposure to risky loans
(Gonzalez, 2010; Lutzenkirchen & Weistroffer, 2012; Mia & al (2017). Gonzalez (2010) argues
that when market penetration rates exceed 10% of the total population, portfolio quality
diminishes. Lutzenkirchen & Weistroffer (2012) explain this trend by the fact that when the
potential pool of new clients falls, MFIs in fast growing markets have trouble acquiring new
low-risk borrowers among the poor and end up granting credits to subprime borrowers.
Secondly, MFIs facing high growth do not hire and train cannot keep up with hiring and training
new staff, so that the case-load of loan officers increases, while quality of monitoring decreases.
Specifically, Habitat for Humanity (2019) listed the three main related risks to housing
microfinance for MFIs as follows: (1) client repayment consideration, (2) nonfinancial
constraints and (3) tenure security. The most major risk concerns the ability of the client to
repay the instalments, which is a common concern when dealing with clients with inconsistent
or even unpredictable income is a common concern throughout the microfinance sector. Then
comes the nonfinancial constraints, that is the insufficient ability of housing microfinance
clients to budget or plan for the project. A way to solve this issue is by providing technical
assistance or housing support services. These services may include construction guidance,
assistance in budgeting for the project, legal assistance in securing formal recognition of land
tenure, and even home maintenance skills. Lastly, tenure security is a big concern as in regions
that lack sufficient regulation, homeowners might not be able to prove their ownership. In that
case, the financial providers would have extremely limited recourse on the property if the client
defaulted. Also, an external party could lay claim to the property and ask the residents to leave.
To face this issue, MFIs have to assess the land tenure risks in the region it operates and
adequately price this risk into the product terms.
There is one last constraint faced by MIFs when offering housing microfinance products:
offering stand-alone products with no records on the borrower (Ferguson, 2004). Indeed, the
strongest pressure to repay a loan comes from the ability of the lender to cut future access to
credit to the borrower. In the situation of microlending for microenterprises, they depend on
microfinance institutions for a continuous stream of small working capital requirements,
equipment, or other types of loans, creating a strong business relationship. In the context of
housing microfinance, the borrower may need only one larger credit rather than a sequence of
small loans, which would constitute a stand-alone product. If housing microfinance institutions
24
do not share their information about risky clients, the repayment incentives for the whole
industry weakens.
d. Factors for housing microfinance expansion
Housing microfinance is a relatively new financial product. According to the survey of Habitat
for Humanity (2017)4, this new financial practice expanded significantly around 2005, with the
number of financial institutions offering housing microfinance products nearly doubling
between 2006 and 2011. About 16 percent of total reporting institutions launched housing
microfinance products within the first year of the organization’s founding and 41 percent
introduced housing finance products within 5 years of company’s existence. Globally, housing
microfinance is growing as 64% of MIFs reported that housing microfinance products are
growing as a percentage of their portfolio.
On a global scale, housing microfinance still account only for a minor proportion of
microfinance. A 2011 report found that housing microcredits accounted for less than 2% of the
overall microfinance sector (Habitat for Humanity, 2015).
Some factors in developing economies are fundamental to create an attractive and sound
environment for MIFs expansion. According to Ferguson (2003), the potential for expansion of
housing microfinance institutions is greatest in countries where: (1) macro-financial conditions
create high real interest rate (10% and above) that make traditional mortgage finance affordable
for only a small share of the population, (2) land tenure problems are widespread, and the legal
structure makes taking and/or executing mortgage liens difficult, costly and rare, (3) the great
bulk of the population is low- to moderate income, (4) urbanization is fast, and hence housing
problems are great, (5) a high share of the population has rights to land shorts of full legal title
via purchase or invasion, (6) a strong microfinance industry exists.
A more recent study conducted in Ghana ranked the motivations of MIFs to enter the housing
market in a developing country (Bondinuba & al, 2020). The interest in profit have been listed
as the top motivation for MIFs to offer housing microfinance products. Then, the second strong
determinant of MIFs motivation to enter the market the easy of entry into the market, which
depends on a set of factors such as the prevailing regulatory environment, the availability of
funding, affordable land, among others. The third factor is the interest in growth which mainly
4 Note: the survey of Habitat for Humanity is based on the answers of 101 financial institutions offering housing
microfinance products of a fairly even regional distribution. Results might be biased due to the limited sample.
25
rest on the estimated size of the low-income housing market. Lastly, the desire of
homeownership which is shaped by cultural specificities is an important factor to consider.
The survey of Habitat for Humanity (2017) obtain different results regarding the top reasons
for MIFs to offer housing microfinance products, which can be explain by the different angle
chosen in the survey to tackle the issue. In this report, the main drivers turned out to be social
impact (90%), demand from loyal clients (56%) and portfolio diversification (40%) and attempt
to tap into a new market or grow clientele bases (39%). Institutions are validating missional
alignment (social impact) and considering how the product contributes to the business strategy
of the institution (retain clients or expand market). If we segment by institutional types, we
observe subtle variations in the results. “Social impact” was the most frequently listed motivator
across all institutional types5. For cooperatives and foundations, NGOs and microfinance banks,
“growth in response to demand from loyal clients” was the second most frequently cited
motivator. As we could expect, no NGOs cited profitability, while 53 percent of microfinance
banks, 25 percent of nonbanking financial institutions and 11 percent of cooperatives and
foundations cited profitability as a top three motivator. For microfinance banks, profitability
ranks third. This variation reminds us that the institutional type of the MIFs has a strong
influence on its mission and way of working.
Habitat for Humanity (2017) created a framework, that you can see below, providing valuable
insights to financial institutions in the launch and expansion of housing microfinance products
(Figure 1). The framework aims at covering all drivers related to housing microfinance, namely
market-level drivers, institutional drivers, product-segment specific drivers and profitability
drivers.
5 Note: institutional types are divided among four categories in the study: (1) Cooperatives and foundations, (2)
Nongovernmental organizations, (3) Nonbanking financial institutions, (4) Microfinance banks
26
Figure 1: Framework for understanding the business case for housing microfinance
Source: Habitat for Humanity (2017)
To sum up, although being a promising innovative financial practice, housing microfinance can
prosper only if a combination of factors is creating a favourable environment for its
development. It is important to keep in mind that these factors can be impacted by the
institutional type of the organization.
e. Summary
Housing microfinance is a practice that intersects housing finance and microfinance, and more
concretely, corresponds to small loans with a relatively short terms that have renovations,
expansions or home building purposes. They are frequently accompanied by technical
assistance and/or financial education training. The specific methodology applied fit the
repayment abilities and incremental building practices of low-income borrowers.
Housing microfinance represents a housing finance option for low-income households that are
not served by the formal mortgage sector. It offers more advantageous terms than informal
finance for the lender and may boost the economy through the potential multiplier effect on the
microfinance institutions and the housing industry.
Despite being a promising practice, microfinance has been subject to criticisms due to some
abusive lending terms set up by some MFIs. In addition to this, there is no consensus yet in the
literature on the impact of microfinance on poverty. Whereas there are numerous papers on the
impact of microfinance, there is a research gap on the impact of housing microfinance.
27
On a global scale, housing microfinance is still minor, what can be related to the risks previously
highlighted that are supported by microfinance institutions.
3. Housing Microfinance in the Brazilian context
This chapter will focus on the Brazilian context. It seems relevant in this topic to provide to the
reader some knowledge concerning general microfinance evolution, as HMF is a subpart of this
practice. This subsection will cover the history of microfinance in Brazil, the regulatory
framework of the practice in the country, its current state as well as some insights on the housing
deficit and housing financing options for low-income households. The housing deficit and
housing problem for the poorest ones in Brazil has been subject to important research but
generally under the prism of public policies, and not market-based solutions. Also, in order to
assess the potential contribution of HMF, this topic reveal necessary for the reader to understand
the pool of options the base of the pyramid population has in housing financing. Except for the
state-program My House My Life, researchers have not treated this subject in much details. In
this part, focusing exclusively on the Brazilian context seemed crucial as these alternative
housing financing options are shaped by the political, economic and cultural Brazilian history
and practices.
a. Microfinance
According to Oikawa Cordeiro (2020), Brazil “has a trajectory that stand out the microfinance
world” (p7). Brazil was a pioneer in the creation of what is considered the “new wave” of
microcredit, having started its first microcredit program even before Bangladesh, which is
generally cited as a success example of microfinance. Also, it regulated the sector much earlier
than most countries of the global south. Despite this pioneering role, the microcredit sector in
Brazil did not develop much and is still very limited today. After the election of the Worker’s
Party (PT) in 2003, the state started to play a major role, either through subsidy policies, or
through the control of interest rates, and more generally, by strategically leading the sector
(Oikawa Cordeiro, 2019).
Several authors outline the change in the general characteristics of these projects (Lima, 2009;
Marques, 2009; Feil & Slivnik, 2019). Initially, there was a greater presence of international
organizations and NGOs, such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and
Acción International, acting either through funding or technical support. However, their
28
presence declined drastically over the years, concomitantly with the growth of the state’s
presence in the sector which started mainly with Lula administration in 2003.
The following paragraphs will describe chronologically and in more details the trends evoked
above.
The history of microcredit in Brazil started in 1973 in Recife with the Projeto Uno organized
by Banco Economico. The program’s main purpose was to offer a small line of credit to
informal workers with no collateral, an innovative idea at the time. Despite its innovative
business model and eighteen years of existence, the program got shut down due to its lack of
financial sustainability (Santos & Gois, 2011). Following UNO’s creation, several NGO
oriented towards microcredit have been created in the country, with a significant share of these
receiving financial support from US-based development organizations (Feil & Slivnik, 2019).
However, all these early attempts revealed difficult to operate and gradually shut down. Most
of them were unable to reach sufficient scale and financial sustainability and were strongly
affected by the monetary instability that ravaged the country during the 1980s and beginning of
the 1990s (Feil & Slivnik, 2019).
Several authors report that it is in the second half of the 1990s, after monetary stability had been
achieved by the Real Plan (1994), that microfinance institutions, known as Banco do Povo,
started to mushroom in the country as a result of organized civil society and a number of
municipal and state initiatives (Carvalho de Franca Filho & al, 2012, Feil & Slivnik, 2019). The
federal government had decided to boost the microcredit sector and for that purpose, operated
legal and regulatory changes and implemented several new policies and programs to create
supportive conditions for microcredit expansion. In 1996, the first major public intervention
aiming at supporting microcredit activity was conducted by the National Bank for Economic
and Social Development6 (BNDES) which created the Popular Productive Credit Program and
the Institutional Development Program. These two organizations had as purpose to create the
basis for the expansion of microfinance in Brazil.
According to Feil & Slivnik, (2019), the most successful program began on year later, in 1997,
with the creation of CrediAmigo by Banco do Nordeste. Its success can be attributed to its
6 Note: BNDES is a federal-owned development bank and is the main financing agent for development in the
country.
29
methodology with the focus on loan officers, social collateral and low bureaucratie. Currently,
the program has two million customers and is self-sustainable.
Several authors consider that the election of the left-oriented Workers Party and Lula in 2003
represents a turning point in the democratization of access to credits and others financial
services in Brazil (Barone & Sader, 2008; Carvalho de Franca Filho & al, 2012; Oikawa
Cordeiro 2019; Feil & Slivnik, 2019). Despite being one of the largest economies in the world,
wealth distribution was – and still is – highly unequal, and regional disparities extremely
important. To address these issues, Lula’s administration worked at facilitating mass financial
inclusion by the poor, to increase consumption. For this purpose, the famous cash-transfer
program Bolsa Familia has been created and there was a major expansion of microcredits for
consumption needs. Bringing an end to the neoliberal trends of the 1980 and 1990s reducing
the interventionism of the state, Lula’s government began to restore the role of the government
as the promoter of economic growth and long-term planning (Feil & Slivnik, 2019).
According to Feil & Slivnik (2019), a more comprehension policy toward financial inclusion
started to be delineated after 2003, with numerous measures to expand the supply of financial
services to low-income populations. The main measures were the facilitation to simplification
of the process of opening bank accounts, the stimulus to the formation of credit cooperatives
and the introduction of a two percent reserve requirement on demand deposits by the Central
Bank to microcredit lines. This third measure was an attempt of the BCB to bring the private
financial sector into the microfinance industry. According to Feil & Slivnik (2019), this
regulatory initiative constituted an important tool to stimulate financial institutions to supply
microcredit at relatively low interest rates.
In 2005, the federal government conceived a more comprehensive microcredit policy: created
the National Program of Oriented Productive Microcredit (PNMPO)7. PNMPO aimed at
fostering job creation and income for micro-entrepreneurs, providing resources for microcredit
operations, offering technical support to microcredit providers (Feil & Slivnik, 2019).
According to Feil & Slivnik (2019), PNMPO evolved following the introduction of the
CRESCER program, which pushed the microfinance sector to put more emphasis for business
investment rather than consumption needs. The CRESCER program sets interest rates for
microcredit in a maximum of 8% per year, which is low for Brazilian standards (Feil & Slivnik;
7 Note: the National Program of Oriented Productive Microcredit (PNMPO) have been created through the
enactment of Law 11,110 the 25th of April 2005
30
2019). Barone and Sander (2008) argue that in practice, PNMPO acts as an articulating
institution between productive oriented microcredit institutions, banks and other operators of
public resources, by providing support, promotion and structuring of the microfinance sector.
Thus, it performs other functions that overlap the functions already exercised by BNDES,
duplicating institutional structures and dividing efforts.
Regarding the legal framework, in the two last decades, the Brazilian government has fostered
the development of productive-oriented microcredits through legal instruments but restrained
consumer microcredits.
According to Shankar Nayak & Vieira da Silva (2019), two legal milestones shape the sector
in Brazil until today. First, the Law 10.735/ 2003, according to which all financial institutions
are required to allocate 2% of their direct deposits to microcredit. These are called the Inter-
finance Deposits of Microcredit (DIM). Its objective is to stimulate the performance of the
private financial sector in the microfinance sector. Second is the creation of the National
Program of Productive Oriented Microcredit (PNMPO), by the federal government,
institutionalized by the Law 11.110/2005, which expands the resources directed to the
microcredit sector and formats its operations, limiting, for example, the interest rate at 2% per
month.
Since the resolution 4000/2011 of 2011, the Central Bank of Brazil requires that 80% of the
compulsory applications should go to operations with low-income individuals to stimulate
entrepreneurship, with an emphasis on the development of local communities (Shankar Nayak
& Vieira da Silva, 2019).
Nevertheless, the high operational costs, the lack of expertise in the market combined with these
normative restrictions such as the cap on interest rates, have been reported to be significant
obstacles for private banking institutions to develop their microfinance activities (Chaves,
2011).
More recently, the regulatory framework of microcredit experienced some changes, aiming at
restraining consumer microcredits8 and expanding productive microcredits (Shankar Nayak &
Vieira da Silva, 2019). In 2018, the Brazilian Congress has approved a new law for microcredit
8 Valente, G. Governo acaba com microcrédito para consumo e expande operações para empreendedores , 2019,
URL: https://oglobo.globo.com/economia/governo-acaba-com-microcredito-para-consumo-expande-operacoes-
para-empreendedores-23558271
31
operations (Law 13636/2018). Access has been increased to microentrepreneurs with annual
gross income of up to 200 thousand reais and the maximum limit for the total balance of the
operations contracted by the client increased from 40,000 reais to 80,000 reais. The law also
extends the sources of microcredit financing. Since then, the monitoring of the use of money
by entrepreneurs can be done electronically. This should lower the cost of this type of operation
and encourage more banks to operate in this market and fintechs to expand. Under the current
microcredit rule, banks cannot charge interest higher than 3% per month on these contracts. The
Contract Opening Fee (TAC) is limited to 4% of the total financing amount. As the allocation
of 2% of their direct deposits to microcredit operation did not change, the volume of money
available should not increase at first. This new set of regulations also restrained consumer
microcredit to only one item of consumption: the assisted technologies which encompasses
wheelchairs, hearing aids, equipment for the blind, for example9.
For now, the Brazilian microcredit regulation does not allow financial institutions to offer
microcredits for housing financing and we observe a trend to foster income-generating
microcredits but limit other types of microcredits.
The next paragraphs will aim at evaluating the current state of microfinance in Brazil.
Despite the recent developments and improvements, the size of microfinance in Brazil remains
low compared to the national financial system (Table 3; Feil & Slivnik, 2018). Although its
volume has more than doubled from 2007 to 2016, its proportion only slightly increased in
percentage of the GDP and percentage of the financial system. Both in volume and proportion,
the microfinance industry peaked in 2013, when the interest rates reached its lowest level. In
2016, microcredit operations amounted USD 1,523 million, accounted for 0,08% of the GDP
and 0,16% of the financial system, and had an average interest rate of 28,70%.
9 Ibid
32
Table 3: Data on Microcredits in Brazil
Source: Feil & Slivnik, (2018)
Ramezanali and Assadi (2018) provide data on the current state of microfinance in Brazil in
their paper aiming at assessing poverty alleviation. They report that in 2014, the 1045
institutions that sent their data to Mix Market reached 111.7 million low-income clients and
produced a loan portfolio of USD 87.1 billion. There is an important gap with the study of
Shankar Nayak and Vieira da Silva (2019), who reported that the number of microfinance
clients in Brazil reached 3.1 million people in 201510. This number seem far from reaching its
potential of the market of the 35 million clients for microfinance in Brazil estimated by Soares
& Melo Sobrinho (2008). The level of penetration of microfinance is still very low.
Ramezanali and Assadi (2018) report that at the national level, the microcredit portfolio
represents 0.2% of the value and 0.4% of the operations of the National Financial System
(SFN), respectively amounted to BRL 5.3 billion, for 3.1 million loans11. The default of the
total microfinance portfolio - 5.6% among individual customers and 5.0% of the legal entity or
small business customers - is higher than those reported in the banking industry (4.4% and
1.8%, respectively)12. On average, credits – non necessarily micro - represent 30.4% of the
income of individual customers microcredit borrowers. Regarding credit distribution, the
10 Note: primary data retrieved from Relatório de dados do programa de microcrédito: 3o. trimestre de 2015,
Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego, 2015 11 Note: primary data retrieved from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Entrepreneurship in Brazil - Executive
Report, 2014 12 Note: primary data retrieved from Bacen, Bulletin of Central Bank of Brazil, Central Bank of Brazil, 2015
33
authors note geographical variations. The Northeast region accounts for 52.1% of the national
portfolio in value and 35% of the number of transactions. The average value per transaction is
50% higher than the national average. The Southeast is the second largest microcredit portfolio,
accounting for 22.6% of the national value. These disparities can be explained by the wide
disparities in poverty in Brazil, the Northeast being the poorest state of the country.
Pedroza (2011) highlighted the low penetration rate of microfinance in Brazil (8,1%) compared
to other Latin American countries, such as Bolivia (43,5%) and Peru (33,9%), where
microfinance is an important component of their financial markets (Shankar Nayak & Vieira
da Silva, 2019). Soares and Melo Sobrinho (2008) estimated a potential market of 16 million
micro-entrepreneurs in Brazil, and an effective demand of 12 billion reals (U.S.$3.2 billion) in
microcredit operations, which as we saw in the previous paragraph, is yet far to be met.
Housing microfinance is virtually non-existent in Brazil. So far, there is only one study
launched by City Alliance in 2007 assessing the viability of housing microfinance in the state
of São Paulo. However, with the creation of My House My Life, the development of
microfinance in Brazil and the regulatory evolution, the results are partly outdated. As
mentioned previously, the central bank does not allow financial institutions to offer housing
microcredits, which can explain the little amount of research on housing microfinance in the
Brazilian context. We can conclude that there is a research gap in that topic, as literature
exploring low-income housing is focusing on state-based alternatives.
b. Housing deficit
This subsection will cover diverse aspects of the question, such as the general pattern of LIHs
housing construction or improvement pattern, the estimated demand, the current housing
deficit, and the factors causing these issues. Then, we will move on to the state-program My
House My Life and alternative options offered for housing financing for LIHs.
The lack or poor quality of housing is a major issue for LIHs in Brazil. Gonzalez & Deak (2018)
performed a study on the evolution of housing access in Brazil from 1995 to 2015. They report
in 2015, a housing deficit of 6 million of families, which corresponds to 9.3% of families in
Brazil.13 Considering the timeframe 2007 to 2015, they observe an improving of housing access
till 2013, when the housing deficit started to worsen, both in absolute and relative values. In
13 Note: primary data retrieved from Fundação João Pinheiro
34
2014, about half (48%) of the housing deficit was fuelled by the excessive burden of the housing
related costs (rent, charges, ect…)14. The other half of the housing deficit is made up by family
cohabitation (31%), precarious housing (14%) and house crowding (6%). Family cohabitation
and precarious housing are the categories that decreased significantly both in absolute and
relative percentage. Precarious housing fell from 23% (1.4 million units) in 2007 to 14% (0.9
million units) in 2014. Family cohabitation decreased by 8% over this timeframe (from 39% -
2.5 million units - in 2007 to 31% - 1.9 million units - in 2014). House crowding remained
stable over time (6% - 0.3 million units). The excessive burden of the housing related costs is
the parameter that increased the most. It rose from 32% to 48% (2.0 to 2.9 million units). This
last parameter increased greatly, driven by the valorisation of real estate prices over this
timeframe, which has not been accompanied by a valorisation of wages of the same magnitude.
According to a technical report from FGV to Abrainc (Brazilian Association of Real Estate
Developers), the most vulnerable families, those which earn less than three minimum wages15
, represent 91.7% of the total housing deficit and 100% among those who spend too much on
housing-related costs16.
Nevertheless, despite the housing shortage, Brazil does have a significant number of vacant
units despite the housing shortage (Business Call to Action and Aspen Network of Development
Entrepreneurs, 2014). There are estimated to be at least 7 million empty homes, of which 70%
are in urban areas. Most vacant units are situated in the south-eastern region, with 1,33 million
units in São Paulo. The number of vacant buildings almost equals the units needed to eradicate
the shortage of housing. At least 6.3 million of the 7 million units are in suitable condition to
be occupied and would provide housing for about 19 million people. However, the murky legal
status of the buildings is one of the problems in coping with empty property and recent housing
policies have not dealt with this issue, although these empty units could be used to reduce the
housing crisis with sufficient public policy and private intervention.
Previous research has highlighted the demand for home improvements or expansion.
In 2007, a study conducted by Ashoka explored consumer credits on building material
confirmed the demand for home improvements or expansion. Out of the 237 households
14 Note: housing costs are said excessive when they exceed 30% of income 15 Note: three minimum wages equated BRL 2,994 in 2019 16 Study cited in Antunes, L., Minha Casa perto do fim?, UOL Economia, URL:
https://economia.uol.com.br/reportagens-especiais/minha-casa-minha-vida-dez-anos/#tematico-1
35
studied, 91% declared to intend to pursue home improvement or home expansion (Ferguson &
Smets, 2010).
A more recent study conducted by Plano CDE and the Center for Microfinance and Financial
Inclusion Studies from FGV (2016) on the social classes C, D & E found that home
improvement (22%) is the third most chosen answer to the question “What would you do if you
had extra money?”, after saving (48%) and pay debt (26%). Therefore, we believe that as
international research outlined, LIHs improve their home gradually and that a large share of
this population wishes to expand or improve their home.
Also, as mentioned earlier, research has showed that 20% of microentrepreneurs microcredits
are already directed to home improvement (Habitat for Humanity, 2019). The study of
Ramezanali and Assadi (2018) on microfinance in Brazil corroborates these results: 35% of
microloans have for main purpose housing17. The reported proportion in Brazil is higher than
the worldwide average; that can be related to the fact that HMF is not legally authorized for
financial institutions in Brazil, only productive microcredits are. Thus, microentrepreneurs
would more redirect the purpose of their microloans to housing as they lack other options.
The pattern of housing building for LIHs in Brazil is consistent with the research discussed in
the previous section: slum-dwellers build their home incrementally.
A study conducted by Cities Alliance with the Municipality of Sao Paulo in 2007 highlighted
that incremental self-constructions (often carried out over several years) represent 77% of
housing units built annually in Brazil. In classes C, D and E they represent 99% of the buildings.
Regarding financing, 62% are self-financed, a percentage that rises to 92% for classes D, E. All
the households surveyed declared having built their house themselves and extended it over time.
In the case of the group with residents of buildings, almost all residents still need to renovate
their apartments, as these are delivered by the government without internal and external
finishing. The external renovation is the first thing to be done by the new residents.18 Only part
of the participants (40%) managed to carry out the internal renovation of the apartment, in a
period that varied from 1 to 3 years of living in the building.19 The payment of utility bills,
which many residents coming from slums did not previously pay, put a financial pressure on
the slum-dwellers and leads them to postpone investments in internal renovations of the
17 Note: primary source of the chart is Cidadania Financiera of 2015 18 Note: refers to renovation of the floor, the gate, the stairwell window 19 Note: refers to renovation of the flooring, painting, plaster or putty
36
apartments. In the case of collective housing, 58% of participants stated that they had renovated
their apartment. Most of them discounted the investment made in the improvement out of the
rent. Therefore, in the case of both favelas and apartments, there is an extended period of time
until the improvement or expansion of the unit is carried out.
A report published by Business Call to Action and Aspen Network of Development
Entrepreneurs (2014) on housing of LIHs states that most self-construction is performed by the
residents themselves, representing over 70% of building material transactions in the
construction sector.
c. Housing financing options for low-income households
In this subsection, we will present financing options in Brazil that are accessible to LIHs. We
will begin with the most popular – My House My Life and consumer credits – and move on to
housing cooperatives and housing consortium, and finish with informal housing finance.
Created in 2009, My House My Life is the largest housing policy operating in Brazil. 2007 and
2008 were years of intense growth in Brazil (6.1% and 5.1%) but it was benefiting mainly to
families with middle- and high-income, according to Ana Maria Castelo, coordinator of Civil
Construction Studies at IBRE/FGV (Brazilian Institute of Economics at Fundação Getulio
Vargas).20 The subprime crises outbreaking in the US in 2008 generated concerns on the credit
offer in Brazil. The government of Lula first strengthened the real estate credits offer in public
banks and announced in March the creation of the program My House My Life. Its aim was to
decrease the housing deficit for low-income people, as well as stimulate the economy which
was facing the effect of the subprime crises at that time.21 The program was aiming at building
one million of accommodations for the low-income population at the cost of BRL$34bn through
loans and subsidizes (BRL$60.8bn corrected from inflation - 2019)22. Since 2019, the
subsidizes are fully financed by the Employment Time Guarantee Fund Fundo (ETGF).
The program was organized by levels of revenue and corresponding rate, maximum value of
the unit and level of subsidize. The income range have been modified in 2016. My House My
20 Antunes, L., Minha Casa perto do fim?, UOL Economia, URL: https://economia.uol.com.br/reportagens-
especiais/minha-casa-minha-vida-dez-anos/#tematico-1 21 Ibid 22 Ibid
37
Life now serves families with an income of up to BRL 9,000 - the smaller the family budget,
the greater the subsidy granted.
Table 4 presents the different categories.
Table 4: Rules of the program My House My Life
The first five years of the program (2009-2013) are marked by the focus on the first income
level, which complete subsidies from the government. During this period, 1.5 million units have
been constructed and 80% of the benefiters were part of the first level of income23. The five
following years targeted more the level of income n°2 with the construction of 1.6 million units,
while the first level of income saw only 387 thousand units constructed24. This change of focus
is the result of the decrease of government subsidies and the increase of (FGTS). We can see
these trends on the figure 2:
23 Ibid 24 Ibid
Source: Antunes, L., Minha Casa perto do fim?, UOL Economia, URL: https://economia.uol.com.br/reportagens-
especiais/minha-casa-minha-vida-dez-anos/#tematico-1
38
Figure 2: Units delivered, through the program My House My Life
Source: Antunes, L., Minha Casa perto do fim?, UOL Economia, URL: https://economia.uol.com.br/reportagens-
especiais/minha-casa-minha-vida-dez-anos/#tematico-1
Overall, MCMV had positive impacts on housing supply and the economy of Brazil in the
opinion of representatives of the construction sector, developers, borrowers and housing
specialists25. According to them, the program was essential in coping with the global crisis of
2008 and started to play an important role in mitigating the effects of the crisis registered since
2014 in Brazil, thanks to its ability to generate income, jobs and revenue for the government.
According to data from CBIC (Brazilian Chamber of Construction Industry), the program
generated 3.5 million direct jobs from the beginning of the program until December 2018, about
390 thousand jobs per year, on average.26 Regarding taxes, a report by FGV to ABRAINC
(Brazilian Association of Real Estate Developers) assessed it to BRL 105.6 bn in direct taxes
and another BRL 57.8 bn in indirect taxes, totaling BRL 163.4 billion, from May 2009 to June
2018. Considering the entire productive cycle over nine years, the tax collection provided by
My House My Life exceeded the sum of subsidies given in the period.27 Lastly, the program
has an important weight in the real estate market. In 2018, it represented 75% of the housing
units launched and 78% of the units sold, according to information from ABRAINC.28
25 Ibid 26 Ibid 27 Ibid 28 Ibid
39
According to a technical report from FGV to ABRAINC, My House My Life helped to reduce
the number of families living in precarious housing, but it did not contain the increase in the
number of families that spend too much on rent.29
According to Ambrozio & Gonzalez (2018), MCMV was effective in engaging the federal
government, which historically has acted in a limited way in matters of housing policy, in
addition to creating various possible modalities to expand the housing supply for the low-
income population. The program’s design, however, needs to be improved. Among the issues
identified by the authors, we can cite the lack of analysis of the families' real payment capacities,
the lack of monitoring of instalments repayment and the increasing demand for the program in
a more restrictive fiscal context. Gonzalez & Deak (2018) also note that the program did not
focused sufficiently on the poorest ones, namely the first range. They observe that, specifically
the subsidizes conditions for the first range have been poorly designed. Indeed, the first range
is characterized by a very high level of subsidy, which could have shared more fairly by being
decreased and attributed to more people, and the high default rate of this range that reaches
more than 20%, for monthly instalments of BRL 25,00.
In a context of budgetary constraints, the future of My House My Life is a hot topic.
In February 2020, the fund's curatorial council approved a budget for granting discounts of BRL
9 bn for this year - a value that gradually decreases until reaching BRL 7.5bn in 202330. The
expectation is that this measure will allow the contracting of 330 thousand units in three income
groups of the program, which include financing. The building of 230 units had already been
announced in December, what will totalize 560 units for 2020. The announcement of the new
formatting of the MCMV program has been postponed due to the coronavirus crisis, but
resources to carry out the work are maintained as the state of public calamity allows to avoid
budget cut. The objective is to prevent construction companies to paralyse work or not starting
them, which would cause layoffs. The new program should provide for a different treatment for
the North and Northeast regions, citing adjustments in the policy of subsidies granted and
permission to increase the number of units for families of the range 1.531.
29 Ibid 30 Unknown, Ministério do Desenvolvimento Regional anuncia que subsídios ao MCMV serão 100% bancados
pelo FGTS, ABRAINC, 2020, URL: https://www.abrainc.org.br/abrainc-news/2020/03/30/ministerio-do-
desenvolvimento-regional-anuncia-que-subsidios-ao-mcmv-serao-100-bancados-pelo-
fgts/?hilite=%27minha%27%2C%27casa%27%2C%27minha%27%2C%27vida%27 31 Ibid
40
Regarding the new My House My Life, there should be adjustment in the program's subsidy
curve, which would allow the number of contracts to be increased, especially in the North and
Northeast regions.32 It is expected that, before the reformed program is announced, measures to
stimulate the sector will be announced33.
Another of the main housing financing options for low-income households is consumer credits.
In the last two decades, credit in Brazil has been experiencing strong growth rate especially
consumer credits. It has been the result of an economic policy promote by the Brazilian
government to stimulate consumption. One of the key instruments for this purpose was to widen
access to credit, reaching the lower levels of income. Credit on credit cards has been growing
by an average of 20% per year from 2006 to 2011 (IMF, 2013). Structural changes have helped
to increase credit supply and demand. On the one hand, capital inflows providing liquidity to
banks, and domestic capital market growth, have fuelled credit supply. On the other hand,
corporate and consumer demand for loans has been boosted by a set of factors such as economic
prosperity, linked to a better business climate, a strengthened labour markets and greater social
mobility (IMF, 2013).
In 2007, consumer credits were accounting for 20% of housing investments in São Paulo (Cities
Alliance, 2007). A study commissioned by Ashoka in 2007, cited by Ferguson & Smets, (2010),
explored the use of consumer credits for material building in two favelas of São Paulo. The
building material stores surveyed were proposing consumer credit of their own consisting of
two to three monthly instalments payments. They also channelled bank credits for material
purchase at market rate (3.5% to 6% per month) with 12 to 48 monthly instalments. From the
237 households surveyed, about a third of their purchases were made in consumer credit
(Ferguson & Smets, 2010). A study performed in 2013 by ABECS on the use of credit cards
seems to confirm the common use of consumer credits. According to ABECS, construction
materials are paid by credit card in 43% of cases; debit card in 20% and shop consumer credit
(2%). Unfortunately, this study does not provide any insight on the breakdown of this payment
method by social classes, but credit card is a common mean of payment in Brazil.
The study conducted by Cities Alliance (2007) corroborates these results and claims that
recurring to consumer credits is a common practice for low-income households, but this time
32 Unknown, Minha Casa deve ter novo formato e quer evitar cortes, ABRAINC, 2020, URL:
https://www.abrainc.org.br/noticias/2020/04/02/minha-casa-deve-ter-novo-formato-e-quer-evitar-
cortes/?hilite=%27minha%27%2C%27casa%27%2C%27minha%27%2C%27vida%27 33 Ibid
41
for furniture and appliances. Brazilian apparently have the financial habit to anticipate
consumption regarding furniture’s and appliances. Most people are in the habit of buying
furniture and appliances on instalments in department stores like Casas Bahia. At the time of
the survey, almost all participants were paying instalment instalments, in amounts ranging from
80 to 300 reais. The results are suggesting that almost all participants everyone prefer to
anticipate consumption, even if they must pay interest, rather than saving to buy durable
consumer goods. The study discovered that for LIHs living in apartment, although they do not
have the funds to do the renovations, they make purchases of furniture and appliances with
consumer credit. Debt seems to hinder investment in reforms and savings. Half of the
participants had a bank account and a quarter a credit card. It appeared common in the study to
use the name, check or credit card of friends or relatives to make credit purchases.
Another financing option for the LIHs is credit cooperatives. According to the Central Bank of
Brazil, a credit cooperative can be defined as a financial institution formed by the association
of people to provide financial services exclusively to its members. The cooperative members
are both owners and users of the cooperative, participating in its management and enjoying its
products and services. In credit unions, members find the main services available at banks, such
as checking accounts, financial investments, credit cards, loans and financing. Members have
equal voting power regardless of their share in the cooperative's share capital. Cooperatives are
not aimed at profit; everyone's rights and duties are equal, and membership is free and
voluntary. If there is a positive income, it is distributed among the members, as are the eventual
losses. Credit unions are authorized and supervised by the Central Bank.
Also, housing consortium are economic and accessible financing option for the LIHs. In this
type of organization, similar to chitfunds, borrowers define how much they need and the
maximum term to acquire the property. Each month, participants contribute a defined amount,
creating a common fund. The end value is determined when creating the group. Each month,
until the end of this period, one or more people are selected through a lottery or a bid and receive
the amount necessary to buy their property. When drawn in the housing consortium, participants
are free to choose the property they want, be it built, on the plant, land and even construction
or renovation. Once the asset has been chosen and the guarantees have been approved, the
administrator of your consortium makes the payment directly to the seller. The consortium is a
form of collaborative purchasing. By using resources from the participants themselves, the
consortium has no interest, being a form of self-financing. The consortium administrator is
responsible for the management of this common fund, charges an administration fee for that
42
service. In addition to this rate, which varies between companies, there may also be a charge
for a percentage of reserve funds and insurance, if they are included in the contract.
To continue with, we will discuss informal housing finance as option for LIHs to finance home
construction, expansion or improvements. According to Ferguson & Smets (2010), informal
housing finance encompasses a large and diverse pool of resources such as individual and group
savings, windfalls, fabrication of their own building material by households, sweat equity, small
loans from neighbours, money-lenders or pawnbrokers, barter arrangements and community
self-help, remittances from family living abroad (Baken and Smets, 1999; Ferguson, 1999:189;
Smets, 2004). Past research has showed that low-income households generally use several types
of resources to build their home. In a study conducted in Hyderabad in India, 47% of the sample
were recurring to more than one source of housing financing during the first step of the
incremental building, this number was falling to 35% for the second step, and ultimately rising
to 41% for the third to fifth step (Smets, 2004). The study also highlights that personal savings
gain importance over the building steps and that the main housing financing resources used are
personal savings, loan by acquaintances (family, relatives, neighbors), financial self-help
organizations (chitfund) and moneylenders and pawnbrokers (Smets, 2004). In Central
America, the most common informal housing finance are savings, loans from relatives and
friends, remittance from family and friends and the sale of assets (Stein and Castillo, 2005).
Unfortunately, there is no study assessing the scale of informal housing finance in Brazil.
To end, the study of Cities Alliance (2007) highlights a particular “saving” practice among
LIHs: home inventory. The study reported that the most common practice reported for the
purchase of construction material is cash payment in stores. However, the material is not used
immediately after purchase, but is stored in the buyer's home until the necessary parts are
collected to carry out part of the renovation. This is a strategy for saving construction materials
for population who have less access to conventional banking practices.
d. Summary
This chapter aimed at covering several notions: microfinance in Brazil, housing deficit and
housing financing options for low-income populations.
Brazil was a pioneer in microfinance, with the first microfinance initiatives in the country
occurring in the 70s. The sector was marked by a great involvement of international
organizations, until Lula's election in 2003, when the government started to play a major role
and strategically lead the sector. The successive governments fostered the development of the
43
area towards productive microcredits and concomitantly restrained the development of
consumer microcredits. As of 2020, microfinance has a low penetration in Brazil and did not
experience an important growth in the last decade. There is no data on the current state of
housing microfinance; the practice is virtually inexistent in the literature.
Housing microfinance does not appear as a widespread financing option in Brazil, but the
housing deficit among low-income households is important. In 2015, 9.3% of Brazilian families
were living in poor housing conditions, that are encompassed in the housing deficit. Literature
suggests there is a demand for home expansion and improvement among low-income
households in Brazil, as well as the incremental building practices, in line with the international
literature.
Low-income households in Brazil still dispose from housing financing options, some of them
widespread at the international level such as consumer credits and informal housing finance,
and some others more specific to the country such as the housing public program My House
My Life, housing consortium and housing cooperatives.
4. Overall view of housing and HMF Experiences in Latin America
This section will describe the experiences of South and Central American countries in terms of
housing deficits, and especially the private initiatives and public strategies that have been done
in order to alleviate this housing deficit. The purpose of this chapter will be to identify under
which conditions housing microfinance strived in countries comparable to Brazil on various
aspects, and also have a larger picture on how it can be complementary to public programs. In
order to be able to situate and compare Brazil with the countries of its geographical area, Brazil
will be included in the analysis.
Although adequate housing for families has been recognized as a universal human right (UN,
1948), it is still a major problem for Central and South America. Indeed, the region experienced
a rapid urbanization process from 1950 to 1990 (ECLAC & UN-Habitat, 2015). It is now one
of the most urbanized regions in the world. The urbanization process in Central and Latin
America has resulted in a strong increase in cities size and number.
Cities have been and still are shaped and reshaped and this process of city growth has been one
of land speculation and increasing segregation (IDB, 2018). Urbanization and population
growth in Latin America have frequently outpaced the capacity of governments to provide
44
public services that are crucial to development, such as access to basic services (water,
electricity, sewage) but also good public schools and public medical centres. The lack of
adequate housing, together with low-quality, or in some cases no public services in the
neighbourhood, perpetuates inequalities and hinders economic and social development.
The new urbanization phase in the region, characterised by a slowdown of the urban population
growth rate, is a window of opportunity for policymakers to set up policies that promote more
inclusive and more sustainable cities (ECLAC & UN-Habitat, 2015).
Grubbauer (2018) established a literature review of all papers related to housing microfinance
in Latin America, as well as an agenda for future research. From this literature review, we
observe that a considerable amount of literature has been published on a few countries, which
are success examples of HMF, such as Bolivia with Bancosol, Peru with Mibanco and Mexico.
No research specifically applied to the Brazilian context is cited, which can result from the
almost non-existence of housing microfinance in the country so far. The author identifies
important research gaps that should be explored in the future.
a. Housing deficit
Informal housing in the region usually has a common origin: irregular land development.
Houses spring up in lots without access to basic services (Bouillon, 2012). Over time, slums
inhabitants proceed to home expansion ignoring the poorly enforced building codes or
municipal regulation. Some disadvantaged areas such as the former Villa El Salvador Pueblo
Joven in Lima successfully benefited from public upgrading programs, but urban planning
overall is still misfunctioning.
Housing problems affects more than a third of South American and Caribbean families in cities
and affects importantly their wellbeing and quality of life, their vulnerability to natural disasters
and bad health condition, their access to economic opportunities, as well as the economic
opportunities of their children (Bouillon, 2012).
The housing market also shape the structure of cities. Poorly functioning housing markets and
land markets “frequently create and feed endless cities, with low urban densities, fuzzy
boundaries between the city and the countryside, single-use (commercial, industrial,
recreational, or residential) rather than mixed-use neighborhoods, scattered and poorly
connected urban developments, and fragmented open spaces” (Bouillon, 2012:39). Housing
informality and chaotic urban sprawl are generally correlated, as irregular land development
45
and construction results in the widespread occupation of public spaces such as streets,
pavements, and viaducts, or the occupation of protected forest or coastal land, riverbanks, water
reservoirs, mountain sides, and other environmentally protected or disaster-prone areas
(Bouillon, 2012).
Low housing deficit generally goes hand in hand with well-functioning housing markets, in
which households can access good quality housing and improve their housing conditions as
their incomes increase. The housing sector contributes to the GDP growth and has a spill over
effect on the broader economy, through the support of the construction sector and the mortgage
market (Bouillon, 2012; IDB, 2016). Also, efficient politics for the preservation of protected
area is fundamental for the growth of sustainable and green cities.
Measuring the scale and magnitude of housing problems helps policymakers to identify the
housing needs at the national, regional and local level, determine the investment requirements
for households, the private and public sector, and understand the nature of the regulatory
disfunctions that feed this housing deficit (Bouillon, 2012).
The measure of the housing deficit over time using a single methodology allows to make
comparisons between cities and countries, as well as help setting reasonable targets for housing
deficit reduction over time. In addition to helping identifying housing problems, it contributes
identifying level of access to basic services such as water, electricity, sanitation, internet and
phone, among others.
However, the measure of the housing gap has many imperfections. First, the measure
encompasses a set of characteristics (see appendix 1) that depends on subjective standards that
may very among methodologies. For instance, the type of material used as a characteristic of
poor housing may vary among country. Also, the measure can omit important aspects of
community services such as access to jobs and commuting distance to major employment areas,
quality of health and education services, safety of the surrounding areas, income
segregation/integration, among others (Bouillon, 2012).
Housing deficits are usually divided into quantitative and qualitative shortages. The quantitative
deficit refers to households in houses unsuitable for living and/or households that share units.
The qualitative deficit refers to households in houses with insecure tenure, houses made from
poor materials, lacking access to basic services such as sanitation or electricity, as well as
overcrowding (three people or more per room).
46
This section will cover the current state of housing in Central and Latin America. Two types of
data will be used: the first is the proportion of the population living in slums and the second is
a compilation of studies on national housing deficits.
Table 5 presents the proportion of the population living in slums from the urban population
from 1990 to 2018. It has been collected from the United Nation's Millennium Development
Goals database of the Worldbank. The data for 1990 is missing for 10 out of 20 countries
analyzed. UN Habitat defines a ‘slum household’ as one in which the inhabitants suffer one or
more of the following household deprivations: lack of access to improved water services
(sufficient amount at an affordable price obtained without extreme effort); lack of access to
improved sanitation facilities (disposal of human waste); lack of sufficient living area (not more
than two people sharing the same room); lack of housing durability (a permanent and adequate
structure in a non-hazardous location); and, lack of security of tenure (proven documentation
or perceived protection from eviction). By extension, the term ‘slum dweller’ refers to a person
living in a household that lacks any of the above attributes.
Table 5: Population living in slums (as % of the urban population)
Source: data retrieved from the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals database of the Worlbank, 1990 - 2008.
We observe a sharp decrease in the percentage of the population living in slums in Central and
Latin America from 1990 to 2005 (-21% on average) and a mild decrease from 2005 to 2018 (-
3%). However, that may be influenced by data missing in 1990, as the countries considered are
47
different from 1990 to 2005 and 2005 to 2018. Decrease in the population living in slums has
been very important for some countries, such as Nicaragua (89% to 42%) or Peru (66% to 33%).
Almost all countries experienced continual and gradual decrease, but a few countries such as
Colombia (15p.p increase from 2014 to 2016), Ecuador (14p.p increase from 2005 to 2014,
then decrease) or Mexico (5p.p increase from 2014 to 2016).
The quality of informal housing improved over time thanks to the implementation of public
programs and as a result of the income increase of the population. Local governments and
international organizations have implemented slum upgrading programs in various cities in
Latin America. We can cite as examples Favela-Bairro in Rio de Janeiro, the Guarapiranga
Project in São Paulo, Habitat in several cities in Mexico, and Quiero Mi Barrio in several cities
in Chile (Bouillon, 2012).
The percentage of individuals living in slums is a good indicator as the data has been collected
by the Worldbank a follow a unique methodology. However, to be more specific, we will now
describe housing deficits in each country.
Each country collects information about the state and quality of housing in the country through
national census processes. There is a consensus among researchers on the fact that the
governmental source of data is the most reliable to assess the housing deficit in a country
(Habitat for Humanity, 2016). However, the different methodologies used by countries and the
difficulties to assess accurately the housing deficit in informal areas call into question the
reliability of such information (Habitat for Humanity, 2016).
In 2011, Rojas and Medellin elaborated a cross-country comparison of national housing deficits
in Latin and Central America as of 1995 and 2006 for the Inter-American Development Bank.
The researchers used compiled data obtained through national household surveys.
The study estimates four types of housing shortages: (A) Quantitative shortage, and three types
of (B) Qualitative shortages: (B1) Materials and Overcrowding, (B2) Lack of Infrastructure and
(B3) Lack of Secure Tenure. Households included in the quantitative housing deficit were taken
out of the dataset used to estimate the qualitative housing deficit. The researcher chose to keep
the three categories of qualitative deficit separate because he believes these housing problems
needs different combinations of answers from the households and the public sector to be
corrected. A detailed description of the methodology used is provided in appendix 2.
48
Bouillon (2012) used Rojas and Medellin’s (2011) method to update housing deficits with
2009’s value and deepen the analysis. Table x shows the housing urban deficits in 1995 and
2006 in Latin and Central America. The data has been collected from the study of Rojas and
Medellin in 2011 - Housing Policy Matters for the Poor: Housing Conditions in Latin America
and the Caribbean, 1995-2006 – for the Inter-American Development Bank and the study of
Bouillon in 2012. The researchers used compiled data obtained through national household
surveys. Bouillon used Rojas and Medellin’s methodology to collect data for 2009.
Bouillon (2012) used a slightly different methodology for 2009 in the sense that he separated
the category B1 – Materials and Overcrowding into two categories. He also added a category
for the overall qualitative deficit.
Table 6 is a cross-country comparison of housing urban deficit compiling the studies of Rojas
and Medellin (2011) and Bouillon (2012) and table 7 is a cross-country comparison of housing
urban deficits focusing on qualitative components. The original tables can be found in appendix
3 and 4.
Table 6: Cross-country comparison of housing urban deficit in 1995, 2006 and 2009
Source: data compiled by the author from Rojas and Medellin (2011) and Bouillon (2012)
From 1995 to 2006, quantitative deficits decreased by 3% on average for Latin and Central
American countries. Only one country – Nicaragua – has an increase of its quantitative housing
deficit by 2% over this timeframe. We can notice that for all countries, the qualitative deficit is
higher than the quantitative one. The qualitative deficit was on average of 31% in 2009 in Latin
49
and Central America. The total housing deficit was on average of 39% for the area in 2009.
Brazil demonstrates housing deficit close to the average of the area.
Table 7: Cross-country comparison of housing urban deficit qualitative components in 1995, 2006 and 2009
Source: data compiled by the author from Rojas and Medellin (2011) and Bouillon (2012)
If we analyse the qualitative deficit by components, we can see that they all decrease on average
but security of tenure (+2p.p). Materials and overcrowding decreased by 5p.p from 1995 to
2006. Unfortunately, we cannot draw a comparison with 2009 as the components material and
overcrowding have been separated and cannot be added up. Lack of infrastructure decreased by
7p.p. However, in absolute values, the housing deficit worsen as the decrease in percentage has
not been sufficient to absorb the population growth (Rojas and Medellin, 2011).
Both studies (Rojas and Medellin, 2011; Bouillon, 2012) highlighted the negative correlation
between countries’ level of income and housing deficits (see appendix 5 to see the figure). The
higher the income per capita in a country, the better the general housing conditions of their
populations. This correlation is particularly strong for deficits in infrastructure and materials
and overcrowding (Rojas and Medellin, 2011). This correlation holds for all variables but lack
of secure tenure (Rojas and Medellin, 2011). Following this logic, a country’s housing deficit
should depend on its GDP per capita.
Table 8 presents the housing deficit for urban and rural areas, and income quintile in 2009. Data
has been collected by Bouillon (2012).
50
Table 8: Housing Deficit by Income Quintiles in 2009
Source: Bouillon (2012)
Housing deficit varies across income quintiles and is consistently worse for lower-income
categories, as well as rural populations. The housing deficit for rural population is for each
country relatively high, especially for Peru where it reaches 98% of the rural population.
From 1996 to 2006, the quality of housing improved for all quintiles, especially for the lower-
income quintiles (Bouillon, 2012; see graphs in appendix 6). Only tenure security got worse on
average, and for all quintiles (Bouillon, 2012).
Table 9 is the most recent cross-country analysis of housing deficits in Central and Latin
America found. It has been done by the Development Bank of Latin America in 2017. The
author collected data from CEDLAS (2017). It offers a diagnosis of qualitative deficits total
and by components in Latin America. Differently to the studies of Rojas and Medellin (2011)
and Bouillon (2012), this study incorporates the dimension of access to basic services.
Unfortunately, due to the different methodology used, we will not be able to compare data with
the two previous studies analysed.
The column total reports the percentage of unit having at least one type of qualitative deficit
(Materials, Tenure, Overcrowding or Total services).
51
Table 9: Qualitative deficit in Latin America around 2015
Source: Development Bank of Latin America (2017)
In Latin America, approximately 1 out of every 3 households lives in a unit with a qualitative
deficit. As in the precedent studies, Chile and Costa Rica have the lowest percentages of
housing deficits (17% and 10%, respectively). At the other extreme, in Bolivia, El Salvador and
Guatemala near of half of the urban housing presents some insufficiency. Again, this is
consistent with the precedent qualitative deficit cross-country comparisons. The main source of
deficit in the region is associated with lack of access to services and, more specifically, to the
high rate of households that are not connected to a sewage system. This is the situation in more
than a quarter of the housing in El Salvador and Paraguay. On the other hand, the connection
to the electrical network in the urban areas of the continent is almost universal.
Housing deficit is shaped differently in different country, which means governments should
adapt exclusively their housing programs and politics to the context of their own housing
deficit, and avoid trying to imitate other policies and programs that turned out successful in
52
other countries, as they might not tackle the issues country if replicated (Rojas and Medellin,
2011; Bouillon, 2012).
Overall, research findings tend to show that the housing deficit is declining in Latin and Central
America (Habitat for Humanity, 2016) and that Brazil has a housing deficit of about the same
levels than the average of the area. The future housing needs represents however a challenge in
terms of housing for the region.
Table 10 presents is an estimation of Rojas and Medellin of the future housing needs in Latin
America. To estimate the growth in the number of urban households, this study used the
headship ratio method based on data provided by the household surveys (circa 2006), the World
Population Prospects (2008 revision) and the urban population projections by cohort from the
Population Division of ECLAC (2009).
The 2010-2050 projections show that approximately the number of new households added
annually from 2020 to 2050 in Latin America overall is declining. Indeed, countries of Latin
America and Central America already reached the peak of the population growth rate, which
explain that the absolute number of additional future housing needs is gradually declining.
53
Table 10: Future housing needs in Latin America
Source: Rojas and Medellin (2011)
Note: Average Annual Household Formation, in thousands, except LAC in millions
The household formation represents a great challenge for these countries as it represents a need
for new houses and thus an additional pressure on the housing deficit. The declining fiscal
capacity of the states to subsidize housing policies should induce a search for new market-based
housing financing options.
b. Loan and mortgage context
Access to mortgage credit depends on various factors: macroeconomic stability, financial
market regulations, the cost of credit (interest rate), and household characteristics that influence
credit risk.
We use two indicators to analyse the depth and breadth of the housing finance sector in our
selection of countries. The first, Mortgage Depth, is the outstanding mortgage loan relative to
the GDP (Badev & al, 2013). It measures the depth of the total mortgage market by focusing
on the total volume. The data presented have been compiled by HelgiLibrary, a data-provider.
54
It is necessary to mention that Mortgage Depth only captures formal mortgage loans from
regulated institutions and excludes loans from non-regulated microfinance institutions and
informal sources, as well as loans or grants from government organizations outside the
regulated financial system (Badev & al, 2013). In addition to this, the primary data collected by
Helgi Library comes from national central banks, national institutions and/or international
organizations. For this reason, the methodology used to calculate the size of the mortgage
market by local institutions may slightly differ. Some countries only include collateralized
housing loans, while others may have a more flexible definition covering unsecured consumer
loans used for housing purposes (Badev & al, 2013). In addition to this, the frontier between
commercial real estate loan and a housing loan can be very thin, especially in emerging markets
where a large share of informal workers uses their home as working place (Badev & al, 2013).
Figure 3 shows the cross-country variation in mortgage depth in 2012 and 2016. Mortgage debt
to GDP ranges from 0,4% in Argentina to 23.5% in Chile. Overall, we observe an upward trend
in most countries from 2012 to 2016. Only in Argentina and Nicaragua the interest rate
decreased over the four years.
Figure 3: Mortgage Depth
Source: primary data retrieved from Helgi Library
The second indicator chosen for housing finance access is the housing loan penetration from
Findex, which correspond to the percentage of individuals with an outstanding loan to purchase
a home. Findex is the world’s most comprehensive database on financial inclusion. It has been
launched in 2011, with funding of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and has been
published every three years since then. Findex collects data through surveys - phone or face-to-
,759%2,451% 2,863%
4,128% 4,659% 4,865% 5,330%6,917% 7,380%
13,800%
18,700%
,364%
3,418%4,590%
6,187%
8,699%
12,503%
5,057%
23,536%
2012 2016
55
face – covering about 150,000 individuals from 144 countries. The surveys are conducted by
Gallup Inc. Approximately a thousand individuals are interviewed in each economy.
Unlike for Mortgage Depth, where data was collected from various local and international
institutions, Findex methodology ensures the comparability of data. Also, the definition of
housing loan includes here housing loans from any type of provide, including regulated
financial institutions, microfinance institutional and informal sources.
As our study focuses on the low-income households, Figure 6 presents two variables: the
percentage of outstanding housing loans for individuals above 15 years old and the percentage
of outstanding housing loans for individuals above 15 years old being part of the poorest 40
percent. The data presented is as of 2017. On average, housing loan penetration is of 7% for
individuals above 15 years old and falls at 4% when we filter to the 40% poorest of the
population above 15 years old. In some countries, the difference is sharp: in 9 out of 20
countries, housing penetration decreases by half when considering only the 40% poorest. Brazil
demonstrates a low housing loan penetration compared to its peers, all the more if we take into
consideration the level of development. For example, Haiti which has a GDP per capita much
lower than Brazil has level of housing loan penetration twice bigger.
Figure 4: Housing Loan penetration
Source: primary data retrieved from Findex (2017)
0%
3%3%
4%5% 5%
5%
6% 6%7% 7% 7%
7% 8%8%
9%9%
10%11%
12%
7%
0%
1% 1% 1%
2%
3%
2% 2%2%
4%4% 4%
6%6%
5%
6%
5%
9%
5%
8%
4%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
Housing loan Housing loan, poorest 40%
56
According to Bouillon (2012), access to housing financing is influenced by many factors such
as macroeconomic stability, financial market regulation, cost of credit (interest rate), and
households characteristics that affect credit risk.
As we can see on table 11, on average, Latin American countries have a real interest rate of 8.1
percent, which is higher from the rates charged in OECD countries (Bouillon, 2012). There are
exceptions, where the private sector rate is very competitive as Panama (2.7 percent) and Chile
(4.6%). In contrast, some countries such as Brazil, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela are still
charging double-digit real interest rates.
Table 11: Mortgage Interest Rates in Latin American and Caribbean Countries, 2010 (percentage)34
Source: Bouillon (2012)
34 Note: Average data for Latin America and the Caribbean is based on the simple average of the countries’ data.
Since one-third of the countries have indexed rates, the remainder after deducting the average inflation to the
nominal interest rate are not equal to the real interest rate.
57
Moreover, the housing finance systems in Central and Latin America are small, but we observe
an important government involvement. Indeed, as we see on table 12, the presence of public
bank is large. Bouillon (2012) compared the market share of government-sponsored credit
institutions in real estate lending in selected Latin American countries, using data of Bureau
Van Dijk (2010). Government-sponsored mortgage are substantially more common than other
types of government-sponsored loans, expect for Colombia. For Argentina, Brazil and Mexico,
more than two third of mortgages are government sponsored.
Table 12: Market share of government-sponsored credit institutions in real estate lending in select Latin American countries
Source: Bouillon (2012), in percentage points
To conclude, the housing financing sector in Latin and Central America are generally
underdeveloped and accessible to only a small share of the population only. It appears that
compared to the average of the area, Brazil has a housing financing system slightly less
accessible and rely intensely on government-sponsored real estate lending.
c. Assessment of housing policies
In this subsection, we will provide a snapshot of the housing public policies undergone in in
Central and Latin American countries in the last decades, as well as a literature review on the
efficacity of these programs.
Reducing the housing shortage is a challenge for policymakers: which combination of housing
public policies and interventions will generate the best outcome to alleviate both the
quantitative and qualitative deficit of the region, while answering the future housing’s needs.
58
Governments in Latin and Central American countries have implemented a vast array of
housing policies and programs. The concerns on housing intensified in the 1960’s when
urbanization and population growth generated urban sprawl and the creation and expansion of
slums. The first answer to this issue has been the financing, construction and distribution of
houses (Bouillon, 2012). Rapidly, these programs turned out as heavy burdens from the
institution financing it, with limited positive spill-over effect (Bouillon, 2012). In addition, as
the housing industry was focusing on serving high-income households, the housing programs
initially designed to serve the poorest strata of the population appeared appealing for middle-
income household (Bouillon, 2012). Consequently, governments broadened their selection
filters as serving middle-income households was less risky and cheaper, thus excluding the
initial target households from the programs (Rojas, 1995).
In the 1990’s, a new approach emerged to deal with housing deficits: the “enabling markets”
strategy (Bouillon, 2012). Based on the assumption that markets are more efficient than
government in constructing and distributing houses, policymakers started to more strongly
promote the housing private sector and diminished direct subventions and interventions. In the
late 70s, Chile was the first country following this approach to solve its housing problems. This
strategy has been promoted the UN from 1988, and by the World Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) from the early 1980s (Bouillon, 2012). The enabling market strategy
fit the economic context of fiscal austerity.
In the following years, Central and Latin American countries followed different paths and
implemented various types of housing programs. Some governments adopted a market-oriented
approach and implemented measures that promoted the free operation of the housing market,
with little or no state intervention. In that case, the private sector was usually the main provider
of houses and there were no or little housing programs to eradicate slums. Some other
governments adopted an interventionist approach believed they should play an active role in
controlling housing public institutions, housing supply, access to credit, and have the power to
regulate accordingly the market. Some other countries chose a mixed approach: playing a
moderate role in the market regulation, provide subsidizes but limit direct provision.
Bouillon (2012) compared the types of housing programs in Latin America and the Caribbean
to alleviate the housing deficit (see figure 5). The policies and programs range from very
interventionist to market oriented.
59
Figure 5: Housing programs in Latin America and the Caribbean
Source: Bouillon (2012)
How we can see on figure 5, various approaches have been used by Latin and Central American
countries to alleviate the housing deficit. According to the Global Housing Research from
Habitat for Humanity (2016) which dressed a literature review on all papers on housing policies
and programs in Latin America, there is no clear consensus of researchers on which housing
policy approach generates the best outcome.
Habitat for Humanity (2016) produced a literature review gathering all research on demand-
based subsidy programs. The ABC model (“ahorro, bono, crédito,” or “savings, subsidy,
credit”) has been popular in many countries of Latin and Central America. It requires
households to save to access mortgage. According to them, the country-by-country highlight as
main positive impact of these programs the decrease of the quantitative housing deficit and the
improvement of basic living conditions. However, the body of research also outline important
60
issues related to these programs, such as the inefficiency for serving the poorest ones, the
insufficient scale to have a significant impact on the housing deficit, the shelter-induced
poverty, the poor quality of housing provided, the isolated location of the new units, and
secondary problems such as the possible increase of crime and drug in these neighbourhoods.
There is not consensus, however, about how to apply this model to reach positive outcomes, or
on how such programs are expected to perform.
One observation we can have is that most governments in Central and Latin America favour
the production and distribution of new and finished housing units over improvements of
existing housing stock and incremental construction (Greene and Rojas, 2008). As said
previously, Rojas and Medellin (2011) stress for adapted housing policies, as the nature of the
problem and the contexts differ among countries. They believe new construction is necessary
in some countries to reduce the quantitative deficit while improving the quality of housing
should be the focus in other countries. Overall, Rojas and Medellin (2011) advocate for
settlement-upgrading programs to reduce the housing deficit related to infrastructure.
According to Rojas (2018), an isolated low-income housing program does not produce a good
outcome. He states that the best performing countries in Latin America have a combination of
housing programs and policies that complement each other: upfront subsidies helping low- and
middle-income households to access mortgage supplied by the private sector, direct provision
of highly subsidized loans of basic but expandable units for the poorest ones that cannot access
the mortgage market, microcredits to assist self-builders incrementally improve or expand their
home and urban upgrading programs for substandard informal settlements. Rojas (2018)
outlines the fact that the government can’t solve by itself the housing issue: the financial
pressure has to be minimized and resources mainly targeting the poorest ones, while efforts at
directed at building a sustainable private housing system.
Also, research highlighted that housing policies in the region generally promotes
homeownership over renting as a form of tenure (Bouillon, 2012; Habitat for Humanity, 2016).
However, UN-Habitat supports a more proactive attitude from the governments on the
development of rental markets, based on the premise that it plays a significant role in well-
functioning housing markets (UN-Habitat, 2011). Also, rental is an alternative that answer some
needs that sometimes cannot be fulfilled through homeownership: transitioning lives, inability
to pay for a home, mobility, access to employment, and desirability of location (Habitat for
Humanity, 2016). Some countries of Latin America attempted at setting up housing policies
and programs favouring rental, but considering the infant stage of these programs, research has
61
not yet clearly dressed conclusions on the efficiency of these programs (Habitat for Humanity,
2016).
Bouillon (2012) established from his comparative study a toolkit on how to design sound
housing policies and programs that can be summarized in the following points:
• Government must get a proper understanding of their specific housing issues and use a
different mix of instruments to answer the needs of the different income groups.
• The right trade-off should be made to balance quality, targeting and coverage. High-
standards housing units suppose a lower coverage and are attractive to higher-income
households.
• Public housing programs should be stable enough to allow long-term planning, but
subject to change to adapt to market developments, especially to allow the growth of
the private sector participation
• Use tools of the enabling markets approach to limit public expenditures
• Policymakers should encourage the production of low-income housing, promote
competition among developers and improve tools that support low-cost land
development
• Housing policy should focus less on the provision of new and finished housing units,
which have provided a positive outcome in decrease quantitative deficits, but diversify
with housing programs of incremental construction, rental or poor neighbourhoods
upgrading
• Program implementation must be improved to reduce costs and bureaucracy. This
development can occur through decentralization
• Until a long-term and efficient solution answer the housing needs of the lower-income
population, the government should play a role in supporting this population strata.
Housing microfinance is promising but the private sector is still reluctant to serve this
segment; public intervention should promote private products and methodologies that
answer the lower-income market
Literature did not reach a consensus on which housing policies are the most efficient, but it
pointed out some disfunctions related to the design of existing housing policies. Researchers
outlined the importance of setting up a combination of housing policies and tools. In this
context, housing microfinance could be an additional housing financing option for low-income
population. Placed in the Brazilian context, it seems that the housing policy is too heavily
62
focusing on the state program My House My Life and did not diversified importantly its housing
programs.
d. Microfinance
In this subsection, we will compare microfinance penetration and purpose in Central and Latin
America. The analyse will start on general microfinance, encompassing enterprise,
consumption, housing and other microcredits. Then, we will try to narrow down our analyse to
housing microfinance.
We will base our analyse on data available on Mix Market database. MIX Market database is
reported by financial services providers (FSPs) targeting the unbanked in developing markets
around the globe. The data were reported to MIX for inclusion in its MIX Market platform and
related products for dissemination to a broad public. The financial service providers report data
on financial statements, operations, financial products, end clients, and social performance.
These data were collected and reported in line with broadly recognized reporting standards
within microfinance and inclusive finance. Data reported were for a given period and at a given
point in time between June 1999 and September 2019. However, data is survey-based and not
all microfinance providers of each countries answered. It means that data presented
underestimates the real values, but the similar methodologies allow us to compare microfinance
state across different countries.
Figure 6 shows microfinance penetration. On the one hand, we can see in absolute values the
number of active borrowers as of 2018, and this variable as percentage of the working age
population as of 2018. The number of active borrowers has been retrieved from Mix Market
database and the estimates of the active population has been retrieved from the Population
estimates and projections database from the Worldbank. It comprises individuals between 15
and 64 years old. We believe active borrowers are part of the working age population. The dots
represent the penetration of microfinance, which has been calculated as the proportion of active
microfinance borrowers among the working age population.
In absolute values, Mexico, Peru and Brazil are the countries with the higher number of
microfinance clients of the region. They have respectively 7.1 billion, 5.3 billion and 3.4 billion
active borrowers. However, as proportion of the active population, the ranking of the different
players is different. Overall, for all these countries, microfinance represents a minor proportion
of the active population (below 0.3% of the active population). Peru comes first with
63
microfinance corresponding to 0.25% of the active population, the comes Bolivia (0.19%) and
Ecuador (0.12%). Brazil lag behind with only 0.02% of penetration.
Figure 6: Microfinance penetration
Source: figure elaborated by the author using the number of active borrowers as of 2018 from Mix Market database, and this
variable as percentage of the working age population as of 2018 from the Population estimates and projections database from
the Worldbank
Figure 7 shows the size of microfinance in Latin America and Central America. The countries
with the higher penetration of microfinance in relation with the GDP are Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador,
Paraguay, Nicaragua and Honduras. Again, Brazil demonstrates a very low penetration
compared to its peers.
,007% ,005% ,005% ,001%,012%
,019% ,024% ,025%
,046%
,071% ,071%,082%
,054%
,192%
,125%
,078%
,024%
,249%
,085%
,000%
,050%
,100%
,150%
,200%
,250%
,300%
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Microfinance penetration
Number of borrowers (in mm) As percent of the active population
64
Figure 7: Microfinance Gross Loan Portfolio
Source: figure elaborated by the author using the gross loan portfolio as of 2018 from Mix Market database, and this variable
as percentage of the GDP as of 2018 from the Worldbank
Table 13 and 14 below present the breakdown by categories of the number of microcredits and
the gross loan microcredit portfolio. Data has been collected from Mix Market database. Not
surprisingly, the main use of microfinance is for enterprise financing, both in terms of gross
loan outstanding (78%) and number of loans (82%). Mortgage/housing and consumption are
more niche markets for microfinance, with respectively on average 7% and 13% of gross loan
outstanding and 3% and 15% of the number of loans. Housing microfinance seems more
common in a few countries such as Honduras (31.5% of the gross loan portfolio), Colombia
(27.7% of the gross loan portfolio), Bolivia (24.3% of the gross loan portfolio) and Guatemala
(10.5% of the gross loan portfolio). In contrast, in Costa Rica, Guyana, Haiti, and Jamaica, none
of the microfinance institutions surveyed reported having housing microcredits as part of their
gross loan portfolio. In some larger countries, where microfinance size is larger, the proportion
of housing microfinance is very low such as Brazil (0.1% of the gross loan portfolio) or
Paraguay (0.6% of the gross loan portfolio).
,000% ,004% ,002% ,001% ,004%,014%
,002% ,004%,018%
,035%
,006%
,043%
,001% ,008% ,002%,018%
,061%
,288%
,059%
,000%
,050%
,100%
,150%
,200%
,250%
,300%
,350%
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Microfinance Gross Loan Portfolio
(Absolute and as percentage of the GDP)
Gross loan portfolio (bn) As % of the GDP
65
Table 13: Gross Loan Outstanding – Breakdown by categories (in million)
Source: figure elaborated by the author using data from Mix Market database (2018)
Table 14: Number of Loan Outstanding – Breakdown by Categories (in thousands)
Source: figure elaborated by the author using data from Mix Market database (2018)
From the analysis of Mix Market data, we can conclude that Bolivia, Colombia and Honduras
demonstrate a relatively common use of housing microfinance as a financing option for low-
income households, with respectively 24.3%, 27.7% and 31.5% of the microfinance gross loan
outstanding of each country, and respectively 3.7%, 4.8% and 9.2% of the microfinance number
of loan outstanding of each country. In addition to this, these three countries also surpassed
66
Brazil in terms of microfinance penetration. That being said, although this level of housing
microfinance penetration cannot be considered as widespread yet in these countries, the results
suggest housing microfinance has room for growth in Brazil.
Nevertheless, according to Grubbauer (2019), the distinction between housing microfinance
products and other types of consumer and asset-based loans can be complicated. Indeed, in
some countries, housing microfinance products are not legally authorized and are listed under
other categories. In addition, housing microfinance in its broadest description can comprise a
wide range of loan uses, such as home purchasing, home improvements, minor constructions,
but also the purchase of complementary goods and household appliances, which makes
estimation on the state of housing microfinance complicated.
e. Summary
This section shows that Brazil has housing problems in line with the average of Latin and
Central America, as well as housing markets underdeveloped. It has been noticed that Brazil’s
housing loan penetration is significantly lower than the one of its peers. Housing microfinance
appears as a relatively developed housing financing option for low-income households in
Bolivia, Colombia and Honduras, what can suggest the practice could grow in Brazil to reach
at least similar level of penetration and market size.
The literature suggests that combined with other housing programs, housing microfinance is a
promising tool to mitigate the housing deficit.
5. Methodology
This section outlines the research methodology used for this study, following the research onion
framework of Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009). We will present the research choices,
research instruments and analytical techniques used throughout this study.
Each researcher is guided by their own approach of research itself. Research philosophy can be
defined as the development of research assumptions, its knowledge and nature (Saunders, Lewis
& Thornhill, 2009).
In the choice of a research philosophy, three aspects have to be considered (Saunders, Lewis &
Thornhill, 2009: 119):
• Ontology: the researcher’s view of the nature of reality or being
67
• Epistemology: the researcher’s view regarding what constitutes acceptable knowledge
• Axiology: the researcher’s view of the role of values in research
Positivism is a research philosophy that follow the tradition of natural scientist, in the sense that
the researcher works with an observable social reality in order to produce generalisable definite
laws (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009). Generally, the researcher will use existing theories
to develop hypotheses, which will be tested and then confirmed or refuted. This will possibly
serve as a base for further development of theories which may be tested by further research.
The positivist researcher generally opts for quantifiable data that can be analysed statistically
and overall, use a highly structured methodology in order to facilitate replication (Gil and
Johnson, 2002).
On the opposite to positivism, the interpretivist researcher argues that the social world of
business is far too complex to be theorised will the same methodology as natural sciences, and
that rich insights are lost if this complexity is reduced to generalisable definite laws (Saunders,
Lewis & Thornhill, 2009). Interpretivism argues that the researcher must take into consideration
the differences between humans as social actors. The interpretivist researcher has to adopt an
empathetic position when entering the social world of the research’ subjects and understand the
world from their perspective (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009).
The debate for a research philosophy is often framed in terms of a choice between a positivist
or interpretivist research philosophy (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009). We believe that in
practice, it is unrealistic to choose for one of these positions. Pragmatism argues than if the
research questions does not unambiguously suggest positivist or interpretivist philosophy is
adopted, the researcher may use variations in the epistemology, ontology and axiology he uses
(Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009). Mixed methods, both quantitative and qualitative, are
appropriation in the research philosophy. For these reasons, we believe that a pragmatic
research philosophy fits best with the intended research.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009) described the ontology, epistemology and axiology of a
pragmatic research philosophy as follow:
• Ontology: external, multiple and chosen to best answer the research question
• Epistemology: subjective meaning and observable phenomena considered as acceptable
knowledge if it helps answering the research question; the researcher will be willing to
integrate different perspectives into the analyse if it helps data interpretation
• Axiology: value plays a big role in interpreting results
68
Pragmatism is appealing for the freedom it gives to the researcher: it gives a paradigm that
philosophically embraces the use of mixed models and mixed designs (Tashakkori and Teddlie,
1998). Tashakkori and Teddlie (1998: 30) wrote in relation to the pragmatic research
philosophy, “study what interests you and is of value to you, study it in the different ways that
you deem appropriate, and use the results in ways that can bring about positive consequences”.
This research philosophy seems to be the most adapted considering the breadth of the subject
and open-end research questions.
Two research approaches exist: deductive and inductive.
Deduction is the dominant research approach in the natural sciences where laws explain a
phenomenon, allow to predict its occurrence and thus enable to control it (Collis and Hussey,
2003). The researcher has to develop hypotheses from the existing theory, namely a testable
proposition about the correlation between two or more variables (Robson, 2002). Among the
main characteristics of a deductive research approach, the researcher should use a highly
structured methodology, avoid all subjectivity that would call into question the reliability of the
results, as well as rely on quantitative data that can lead to generalisation (Saunders, Lewis &
Thornhill, 2009).
The alternative research approach is induction. Some researchers opted for this research
approach, as they stated deduction suppose a rigid methodology that does not permit alternative
explanations than the hypotheses tested. An inductive research approach is more appropriate to
gain an understanding of a topic that is relatively new, with little literature about so far, which
is the case for housing microfinance in Brazil. Indeed, it gives a more flexible research design
framework in the sense that the researcher may change its research emphasis as the research
progresses (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009). With induction, data is collected, and a theory
developed as a result of the data analysis. The research approach chosen will be inductive.
The research purpose will be explorative. The primary goal of exploratory research is to gain a
better understanding of an issue or situation and provide a basis for future more rigorous studies
(Zikmund, 2003; Cooper & Schindler, 2006). According to Robson (2002) it is used to find out
“what is happening, to seek new insights, to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new
light” (p.59). According to Zikmund (2003), the first step of an exploratory research is to
analyse the existing studies in the subject area and then transform potential issues into more
defined problems, what has been done in the second section.
69
The research purpose will also be partly descriptive, a research purpose which aims at ‘to
portray[ing] an accurate profile of persons, events or situations’ (Robson 2002:59), in order to
have a clear picture of what is the potential contribution of housing microfinance.
The research strategy is twofold: archival and survey.
In its most classic definition, archival research methods are used in the study of historical
documents, that is, documents from a relatively distant past (Ventresca & Mohr, 2017).
However, this research method can also be employed by researchers investigating non-
historical of texts and images produced by and about contemporary organizations (Ventresca &
Mohr, 2017). It often serves as a tool to complement other research strategies. Archival methods
can be applied to the analysis of digital texts including electronic databases, emails and web
pages.
This research strategy will serve at describing the current state of housing microfinance in
Brazil through online research on search motors in order to map the existing housing
microcredits offers of microfinance institutions.
The second research strategy used here will be interviews. Interviewing experts of the topic will
contribute to gather valid and reliable data on the topic. First, it will complement the mapping
the existing microfinance institutions offering housing microcredits in Brazil. Secondly, it will
allow to study different aspects of the subject, such as the cultural factor affecting the practice
of housing microfinance in Brazil, the barriers to the development of the practice that are
specific to Brazil, and the perspective of future of this practice in the country.
There are two main data collection and analysis techniques: quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative studies will focus on numeric data – numbers – whereas qualitative studies will
focus on non-numeric data – words (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007).
Quantitative methods are generally standardized procedures, attempting at measuring social
phenomena by numbers and testing hypotheses through fixed variables. The use of standardized
procedures allows to conduct the research on large samples and facilitates the finding of
generalizable data (Patton 2002). Opponents of this research school might argue that there is
little to no interaction with people and that variables may be chosen in a random way in
quantitative research (Silvermann, 2006).
Qualitative methods are based on words and actions and involves high level of researcher
involvement and interpretation (Cooper & Schindler, 2006). The researcher is interested in the
70
beliefs and perspectives of the panels interviewed or observed, with an aim to identify pattern
from through observation, documentation and analysis.
When making his research choice, the author will have to choose between mono-method – use
of a single source of data and a corresponding analysis technique - ; or multiple-method – use
of more than one data collection technique and analysis procedures, either quantitative or
qualitative, to answer the research question; or mixed-method – use of more than one data
collection technique and analysis procedures, qualitative for some and quantitative for others,
to answer the research question (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009).
Regarding the research choice for this study, the most appropriate type seems to be the multiple-
method research. It allows the researcher to combine various qualitative data collection and
analysis techniques. As described above, two qualitative techniques will be used, combines,
and will build on each other.
The time horizon will be cross-sectional, which is the study of a particular phenomenon at a
particular time. Indeed, we aim at providing a snapshot of the situation of housing microcredits
as it is now and give some insights on how it could evolve in the future.
The research has been initiated by the mapping of the microfinance institutions offering housing
microcredits. This step helped at establishing a list of individuals to approach for the interviews.
Interviews can take different shapes, depending on the objectives of the researchers. They can
be categorized by their level of formality and structure. Saunders & al (2008) offers the
following classification:
• Structured interviews: use of a survey with an identical set of questions. This type of
interview can be used to collect quantifiable data, and the author should remain neutral
to avoid any bias
• Semi-structured interviews: the researcher have a list of themes and questions, but it
may vary from interview to interview. The order of the question may also be adapted to
the flow of the conversation. Some questions may be omitted and some questions added,
if it serves the exploration of the research question.
• Unstructured interviews: the researcher does not have a predetermined list of question
and the interviews can be considered informal
71
Semi-structured seems the most appropriate interview type for this research, as it gives
sufficient freedom to adapt the questions to the respondent, but still suppose a certain level of
formality and structure that allow to cover similar themes during interviews, and thus attempt
at gathering findings that corroborate. Open-ended questions help us to understand what cannot
be expressed by numerical data and allows the participants to share their experiences and
opinions on the researched phenomenon.
About fifty individuals were approached through Linkedin or by email. They were selected in
respect with their work experience related to housing microfinance. Nine individuals were
interviewed. Three of the interviews have finally not been considered for the results, as the
interviewed individuals turned out to have a very limited knowledge of the topic. The interviews
have been conducted with a panel of experts of the subject currently working or who previously
worked in the following entities:
Table 15: List of Experts interviewed
Expert’s List Institution where the Expert was or is working
Expert 1 Habitat for Humanity Brazil
Expert 2 Blusol ICC
Expert 3 Banco da Familia
Expert 4 Caixa Federal
Expert 5 World Bank
Expert 6 Habitat for Humanity Brazil
Appendix 7 is the interview’s guide. Empirical results
6. Empirical results
This section will explore several aspects relative to the challenges of housing microfinance
development in the Brazilian context. We will first present a mapping of the microfinance
institutions offering housing microcredits to individuals, then explore the market gap housing
microfinance could fill, the challenges it faces and its perspective of development.
a. The current state of the practice
Through online research and interviews, it has been possible to map the microfinance
institutions offering housing microcredits to individuals with no prerequisite to be
microentrepreneur. On top of that, an employee from Abcred (“Associação Brasileira de
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Entidades Operadoras de Microcrédito e Microfinanças” or “Brazilian Association of Operating
Entities of Microcredit) which has been contacted during the interview helped us to map the
offering of microcredit in construction and renovations and provided data on the activity of this
segment.
From the 36 partner institutions, 4 are offering microcredits in construction and 13 are offering
microcredits in renovation. From the institutions partner of Abcred, from January to September
2020, there has been 16,000 operations of microcredits in renovations and 2,900 operations of
microcredits in construction. However, it should be noted that Abcred does not distinguish
microcredits for renovation or construction of the business and of the house. Some of the
institutions indicated by Abcred do not correspond to housing microcredits.
Table 16 shows a mapping of the microfinance institutions offering housing microcredits in
Brazil. We filtered only microfinance institutions offering housing microcredits to individuals
with no prerequisite of being microentrepreneurs. Other types of institutions have been
excluded in this analysis.
Table 16: Mapping of the existing offer
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As Expert 2 stated, some traditional housing credit lines could enter the category of housing
microfinance but are not labelled as so. For this reason, it is difficult to identify all initiatives
of housing microfinance in Brazil. Also, the state program My House My Life can be
considered as an example of housing microfinance, in its broad definition.
When we talk about My House My Life, a housing program in Brazil, applied by
Caixa Econômica, sometimes just the name that is not, but if I get my house, my life,
sometimes 50, 80, 100, 150 thousand an apartment or a house, just because it is
lower, could be classified as housing microcredit, but sometimes it is a name, it is
not necessarily concerned with the nomenclature, sometimes it does not have that
name, housing microcredit, but it is a program that in the understanding of the size
of the money, is a microcredit, only that it does not have that name microcredit, so
sometimes it does not care much about the name that is given sometimes it does not
have a title like oriented productive microcredit which is for those who are
entrepreneurs , the name microcredit is given there, but there is often a program,
including the one in the box, it is a program with lower values, only with another
name they give, so not necessarily sometimes a name has to do with yes or with not
Expert 2
b. Legal Framework
Two of the experts interviewed gave some explanations on the legal framework of housing
microcredits. Under the law, the housing microcredits proposed by some institutions in Brazil
are not classified as microcredits under the codification of the Central Bank. It is classified as
a common credit operation. In addition to this, institutions that are not classified as financial
institutions don’t have to follow the body of regulation of the financial system.
Those you identified under the law are not microcredit, it is a small credit for
housing, it is not classified as microcredit, understand? Because the
classification of credit lines in Brazil follows a codification by the Central Bank,
which is the regulating bank and this line there that you may have seen, in the
Rio community, that it finances cement, tiles, small renovations, and divides it
into various installments, it is not seen as microcredit for the law, it is seen with
a common credit operation, this is a difference, this modality that you also saw,
which is common in some NGOs, some institutes that do this, they do that outside
the financial system, they make a relationship with a client institution, do not go
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through the regulatory body, so there is no taxation, no taxes are paid on it, it
follows a risk model as occurs in common operations and perhaps these two
particulars make it more accessible than with a commercial operation. Because
for those who take the credit, it always looks like a credit transaction, but
systemically, legally, it is not. For example, the credit modeling provided for in
the regulation, it requires a series of customer information, to avoid money
laundering, terrorism financing, all of this is within the prevention of money
laundering and terrorism financing, in this modeling that you see, she is her own
model, so the institution that is doing the credit defines how she wants to do it,
she can come and talk, I will do it for everyone on this street, it is her right, it is
not a credit operation, so she can often access customers who are not accessed
by banks, because the model and financial appetite is low for the entrepreneurial
public, because they have difficulty in presenting a guarantee.
Expert 4
The microcredit institution in Brazil that we call OSCIP, you know, they are not
subordinated to the Central Bank, so probably all these private banks, Banco do
Brasil and Caixa have a very rule clear in housing program, oh, anyone who
wants to operate housing program in Brazil through private or public money,
Caixa, BB or private banks has to follow this rule, surely if you suddenly enter
the central bank's website there must be a rule there, but we have neither
information nor access, because it doesn’t interest us, not least because we don’t
need to report to the central bank
Expert 3
c. Market gap
This subsection will highlight how housing microfinance could fill a market gap in Brazil.
We will analyse the market gap in terms of housing financing options for low-income
households. Considering My House My Life is one of the main housing financing option for
this population strata, and offer very advantageous terms, we aimed at determining what is the
market that is uncovered by the state program, and the reasons behind it.
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It turns out that a part of the demand for housing financing among low-income population is
unmet by the program My House My Life. The main downside of the program appears to be
the relocation of population in far areas, where they would lose their social bonds with people
of their neighbourhood and living farther from their workplace. Then, comes other parameters
at equal weight. It has been mentioned that bureaucratic process can be long, complicated in
terms of documentation, and the person may not fill the requirements of the process. Also, My
House My Life has a limited reach in the sense that the housing deficit is huge in Brazil and the
public sector won’t be able to solve this issue all by itself. Two of the interviewees cited the
preference to live in a house over an apartment as driver, two interviewees outlined that
sometimes families own already a piece of land where the construction could be done, and one
mentioned the preference to do renovations over moving to a new unit. This would constitute
potential clients for housing microcredits.
So, these two markets [Housing Microfinance and My House My Life] do not
compete directly. One could give microcredits in large quantities, because the
public is different, whoever takes [a microcredit] it is not the same person who
buys an apartment, because that person already has a house […] For example,
those who live in a favela and are already urbanized, for example like
Héliopolis, where we work here in São Paulo. She doesn't want to leave, she
wants to live better there, because she already has a whole social network built
there, from school to the health center, the person who takes care of her child
when she is working and the child returns from school. So, and normally, these
MHML sets are made in distant lands, sometimes far from the center, from work.
So, they are not necessarily competitors.
Expert 6
But there is a variable that maybe the books don’t talk about, it’s called culture
[…] So, here in Recife, there were families who lived near the beach, who lived
in the Mangue area. So, the houses were called stilts, these houses were very
bad, and the government took these families to condominiums. This happened in
Recife and in several places in Brazil. The big problem was initially because
they were fishermen. You are far from your work, but then it wasn't just that.
Families do not have a culture of living in community. […] So, you have to pay
condominium, meet the condominium rules, visit rules, respect others.
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Expert 1
At its own cost, right, first that my house, my life, is a bureaucratic process, the
person signs up and is not always contemplated, another thing, the cost of a
house in my house, my life, I don't know in big capitals, but it must to be even
more expensive, in the interior it is above 100 thousand reais, 80 thousand reais,
so compared to ours from 10 to 20 it is a very big difference and besides that it
has a great differential that we always look for what our client will usually
consume a house in the place where he already lives, close to his work close to
his activities and it is not the case that when my house has my life that larger
housing projects are generally more distant from the workplace and he moves
away from that one the place where he lives, the place where he has family,
friends and sometimes health close to his work, right?
Expert 3
[…] there are many opportunities, because as you know, Northeast, where I
live, and elsewhere in Brazil, there is no home and the number of children grows
a lot and as they continue to live in precarious situations. So, a market exists
[…]
Expert 1
What happens maybe in 70, 80% of the cases is that the parents of one or the
other, or of the man or the woman, the parents gave a piece of land to build, but
the land belongs to the father so the box for example does not would finance
because it’s in the father’s name, there’s no land title and for us at Blusol there’s
no problem, so this public for Caixa is difficult to access exactly because this
part of income per capita is a little lower and also because of this part of the
document such that Caixa requires everything, everything is just right, but the
Caixa serves the public very much, so much so that there is a program here, my
house, my life, which is a very large program, which are cheaper apartments,
and such that there is this type of access, but often people want to build a little
house , they don't want to live in an apartment, they want a house that is 20, 25,
30 thousand, but they want a house and that house will often be built within the
land of the father, the family, a brother, sometimes it is a land that fits 3, 4 houses
Expert 2
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But I can tell you this, our target audience and our target financing are
customers who are unable to access My House My Life, this government
program, we are below that and precisely to give the possibility of credit to those
people who sometimes there is no land, but there is a piece of land next to the
father's house.
Expert 3
Expert 4 stressed on the fact that the private sector is not likely to enter markets that are difficult
to be served, such as favelas located on risky areas.
In Brazil, we have some peculiarities, when I talk about social policies, those in
Brazil are mixed with economic and social policies. So often, where the state
manages to reach, it serves that community with the solution. What happens in
Brazil is that there are several situations that the State is unable to be present,
an example, a hill, a slum, a periphery of a large city, and there the state is not
present. […] For the private market, and remember that we have an extremely
aggressive and capitalist economy in the financial market, the private market
makes the following choice it is not economically viable for me to go after this
client to implement a public policy
Expert 4
d. Challenges
This subsection will describe the factors undermining the development of housing microfinance
in Brazil, which can be considered as challenges.
The experts interviewed mentioned a set of seven factors hindering the development of the
practice: the underdevelopment of general microfinance in the country, the concerns on
profitability, the lack of guarantee, the specific methodologies required, the lack of impulse
from the government and the corruption that foster the channelling of important amount of
money in public housing programs over market-based initiatives.
The following paragraphs will explain each factor in detail.
To begin with, the underdevelopment of general microfinance has been evoked by Expert 1,
Expert 6 and Expert 2.
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Expert 1 emphasizes an aspect that was evoked in the literature review. Microfinance in Brazil
was initially strongly supported by international organizations or NGOs and their funds, but
their presence strongly declined from 2003, with the start of Lula’s administration.
In my time at Habitat, microfinance in Brazil, Elena, fell a lot, fell a lot. I don't
know if you found a lot of current material, but the feeling I have by far that the
research was done in 2005, maybe 2009. Because after that the international
organizations left, there is no more international money for microcredit.
Expert 1
When entering in the discussion about housing microfinance, Expert 6 also outlined the
underdevelopment of microfinance in Brazil:
So, for us to talk about the issue of housing microfinance, we first have to talk
about microfinance. If we compare Brazil with other countries in South America,
microfinance is much less developed than in other countries like Bolivia, Peru
and other countries that have characteristics in some aspects that are even
similar to Brazil […]
Expert 6
Expert 2 highlighted the fact that Brazil has a limited number of microfinance institutions and
most of them are of a small size. These small microfinance institutions will naturally tend to
offer more generic products.
“and microcredit, we have institutions similar to Blusol, but not many in Brazil,
maybe we say that there are not 50 in Brazil. [...] there are about 50 microcredit
institutions in Brazil, in Brazil, which is huge, out of the 50 there may be 10 that
are the size of Blusol, and Blusol would be among the 5 largest in Brazil, except
for Banco do Nordeste, which has the microcredit program there, talking only
about the OSCIP microcredit institution, so maybe there is 50, and Blusol is
among the top 5, so it has a lot to do with it, it has to do with, ah, sometimes the
institution is not so big, it ends up having a kind of generic product”
Expert 2
Secondly, Expert 1, Expert 4, Expert 5 and Expert 6 mentioned the concerns about profitability
from microfinance institutions, which disincentivize them from trying to enter that market.
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Expert 6 emphasized the fact that even general microfinance is not an attractive product for
banks and exist mainly as a result of the mandatory portion of credits banks have to transform
as microcredits:
[…] the Brazilian financial system is very concentrated in large banks and the
very resource that goes to microcredit, and then I am talking about oriented
productive microcredit, the type of microcredit that goes to the entrepreneur in
general. It is derived from a portion of credit that banks have to give and that
banks have to give and that they are obliged to offer, but it is not a very profitable
business for the bank, so it is almost a compliance act to offer this type of
microcredit even for entrepreneurs. You have some public organizations, such
as Banco do Nordeste, in the south of Brazil, you have several private
organizations that give microcredit, but it is still difficult not to have the big
stimulus it could have mainly on the government side.
Expert 6
Expert 5 highlighted the common practice of consumption credits through hardware stores, that
disincentivise banks of offering housing microcredits at lower interest rates:
Another thing that happens in an enormous scale in Brazil, all the Brazilian
banks gives loans through hardware stores, through credits to buy materials and
charge astronomic interest rates like 50%. When you ask the banks, they will
probably say to you that’s an interesting idea but it isn’t profitable for them.
Brazil has the highest real interest rate virtually of any country in the world;
Bankers have no interests doing anything constructive in this area.
Expert 5
Expert 1 gave some explanations on why consumer credits is more common and preferred by
financial institutions. As the value of consumption credits is generally lower than for housing
microcredits, the banks manage to divide the risk on a larger amount of lenders, and apply very
high interest rates to cover the risk. In addition to this, the store is not bearing the risk, the bank
is, that is why stores are willing to offer consumption credits:
When I talk about a cell phone, maybe I'm talking about R $ 1000, R $ 1500,
when we talk about housing, we talk about values, maybe around 30 thousand
reais. When we talk about a 10,000 house renovations, 15,000 reais in this
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process. And the term of this is longer. So what does the store do, what does the
store think: Look, I'm going to give André a cell phone that this cell phone takes
on his credit card if André has a credit card, the risk that he will delay the
shopkeeper will not receive it, the operator of the card will be the default. So
this is the first point there. The second point is the following: the value of the
cell phone, it is less than the value of a house or the price of a renovation, so
with the same money, let's say with R $ 20000. I get R $ 20000 and I finance 20
cellphones, I serve 20 people and this reduces the risk. I rate maybe better. Now,
these 20,000 reais for one person is more difficult, one person is all or nothing
if I get it 100% right if I get it wrong there was 100%.
Expert 1
Expert 1 emphasized that Brazilian people have a culture that gives priority to happiness and
well-being and thus don’t prioritize properly their spending which increase the default rate.
But there is a variable that maybe the books don’t talk about, it’s called culture
[…] The problem is that culturally we don't like rules. […] The other thing is
that families take money and do not always use it within what should be used.
For example, we now have emergency assistance. So, many people who need
help, take it and spend it for consumption - party drink -. Often, this money
should be for building materials, for labor. The family uses it for other purposes
and the banks, in addition to not having a formal guarantee, they do not have
this guarantee, so the default increases, because the Brazilian family does not
invest the money as it should, does not follow the financial planning. [...]
Brazilian is the type of person he gives priority to well-being, happiness, than
responsibility
Expert 1
Expert 4 believes it is hard to make banks develop this type of products, as banks are driven by
profitability, and this type of product has a low profitability. He believes it can potentially be
developed only by NGOs or non-profit institutions:
In other countries, a lot of this private initiative is not banks, they are
institutions, associations that do that because it is their job, for example NGOs,
non-profit institutions, and this is a challenge that we have in Brazil, how to put
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a product that commercially causes losses but socially has a giant impact, within
an institution that cannot cause losses.
Expert 4
Thirdly, the lack of guarantee have been mentioned by Expert 6 and Expert 1 stated that the
lack of guarantee is one of the factors limiting the growth of housing microfinance.
Families that need it most do not have regularized properties to provide as
collateral. It is different from other microcredit such as car credit, the car will
only pass in her name when she has finished paying, if she does not pay, the
financial company will take the good back. When the family buys wallpaper, will
they take it off the wall? When you talk about reforms, it doesn’t work. The
business of offering credit to low-income people turns out to be unattractive.
Expert 6
It has many families that live in places that do not have ownership of the
property. For any bank or financial agent, when it comes to default, it is difficult
to redeem this money. [...] In the case of the car, you finance the car if you do
not pay it is taken, it is redeemed. In the case of the house, not always, so I
believe that private banks will only work in this area if they manage to have the
same return power as they do with the car and other goods in that sense, if not,
they will not enter because if he doesn't pay he doesn't have a formal guarantee.
Expert 1
Another factor that have been mentioned by Expert 1 and Expert 6 as hindering the development
of HMF is the need to create frameworks and methodologies specific to this type of credit
because of its audience and the specific risks associated aforementioned (lack of guarantee):
The other factor that is important in this conversation is that you use the same
metrics, the same systems and the same tools that you use to offer credit at the
bank, you try to use that same format when you are a low-income family, goes
by. Other methodologies and other tools need to be involved, we have to work a
lot on this in the sense of making an analysis more focused on that audience,
understand? […] So the credit tools for that credit, the ways of working,
everything has to be reinvented. You can't start from a credit structure that
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already exists and just try to adapt it as if it were more of a traditional audience
and that's why we don't go ahead, you understand?
Expert 6
He believes this type of project hardly work at a large scale because it is necessary to create the
conditions for the credit agent and the lender to build a relationship based on trust and
understanding:
[…] There is this component of microcredit that makes it difficult to do housing
microfinance at a large scale, which is that there is a relationship of trust
between who offers the credit and who receives the money. We have cases, for
example Elena, of a family not being able to pay, and then she calls us to say
“this month my son is sick, I need to buy medicine for him and I can't afford it,
can I delay a month?” which is a procedure that was done because people know
each other, through the relationship. In a bank, this will never happen.
Expert 6
Expert 1 emphasized that institutions who give loans for renovation purposes would have to
monitor the use of the funds, what can disincentivize institutions to enter this market:
I think it’s a good question, they don’t enter the reform area, I don’t even see
that the private initiative, nor an NGO or a group of new actors enter the reform
area, but I believe that neither the government nor the private initiative they will
finance renovations, because renovations requires monitoring, so I have to
monitor whether families are using the money
Expert 1
Beyond the lack of impulse from the government, one factor that has been cited by Expert 5
and Expert 2 is the competition with public programs which offers very advantageous interest
rates:
Brazil has a kind of an inefficient housing system. The federal government takes
about 6% of the worker salaries for housing and urban development, that’s a
huge amount of money and they basically undermine the development of the
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private market, in every way possible. Housing finance including housing
microfinance would have to compete with this system, which is they inject huge
amount of money at housing.
Expert 5
Most microcredit institutions are small, they think almost everything I said
before, there's the Caixa Economica, why are we going to open a microcredit
product at a higher rate, with a lower credit
Expert 2
Another factors that has been mentioned by Expert 6 and Expert 5 is the lack of impulse from
the government to support the development of housing microfinance:
I think this is it, I think it is so, there is no stimulus from a public point of view,
from the point of view of the system that is in place and, on the other hand, this
audience is very specific, has very specific characteristics.
Expert 6
Ashoka went to Natal and started a small housing microfinance scheme, on a
small scale, but it is impossible to make it work at a larger scale because the
government doesn’t support this kind of projects.
Expert 5
Expert 1 identified the lack of a supporting legal framework, which is related to the lack
of impulse from the government, as a factor impeding the development of housing
microcredit in Brazil:
[…] we would need to have laws that benefited both sides, laws that benefited
the family and laws that benefited here are lending.
Expert 1
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Lastly, Expert 5, the only non-Brazilian interviewee, mentioned the corruption as a factor
impeding the development of housing microfinance. Indeed, he believes there is an interest
from the politics to maintain these large-scale housing public program that channel huge
amount of money:
I used to oversee a project in the World Bank on Mexico, with INFONAVITS,
the biggest housing lender in the world […] They channel money the same way
FGTS does. Every Latin American country created something like FGTS but in
the 70s and 80s the World Bank and IDB said it’s inefficient, eliminate them, so
most countries stopped but Brazil decided to keep the FGTS. It’s a huge amount
of money, so many people are on the table, it is a get-rich scheme for the
developers and just enrich the middle-income who enjoy the most the subsidies.
[…]Most countries deleted agencies like FGTS under the recommendation of
the World Bank or IDB except countries hopelessly corrupt like Brazil or
countries with a better idea like Mexico.
Expert 5
Expert 6 who has been asked his opinion regarding the impact of corruption on the development
of housing microfinance has a more mixed opinion on the subject. He believes corruption is a
variable that can have an influence, but that programs like My House My Life that channels
huge amounts of money have been created mainly to boost the economy:
I disagree a bit in parts, and I'll explain why. The MCMV are construction of
complete houses, today there is a housing deficit of constructions in Brazil, of
complete houses, it is 7 million units. So, I agree with him and he has a great
interest in doing this type of project with government money, but we shouldn’t
forget that projects like this, like Minha Casa Minha Vida, they were not
developed to solve the housing deficit only , they have as a priority to move the
economy, move companies to create jobs. The civil construction chain is a value
chain that involves many people, many companies, so the objective is to move
the economy. So, on this aspect I agree with him that there are interests in
wanting to maintain a project like this and I am not talking about corruption.
Corruption is one more variable that can appear there, but I'm talking about a
genuine interest in companies producing, hiring more people, making more
money. So, I agree to that point.
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Expert 6
e. Best practices
Expert 6 stressed the importance of technical assistance in housing microcredits. He believes
that it can lead to the misuse of the funding, but above all, it would lead to the replication of
favela:
There are institutions like Banco da Familia in Santa Catarina, but they give
microcredits for housing, but they do not provide technical assistance. […] If it
is not given, what happens, assuming you had someone who offers affordable
cheap reliable credit to a lot of people, what we're going to be doing is
replicating the favela. Because the person goes, gets the credit, but they also
don't have a specialized workforce, they don't really know what they are going
to do so they also spend this resource badly, if they don't have technical
assistance, technical guidance guides what he is going to do with that money.
[…] Even if the family manages to collect the money, doing a work, the house
remains precarious because it did not have a technical orientation, see?
Expert 6
Expert 3, from Banco da Familia, presented another way of doing: they have partner consultants
to ensure the money lent is used properly.
Yes, I am not going to say that we have full control because it is not ours, it is
not our goal, nor would we be able to have this because the bank would have to
have engineers and the bank does not have this. What we do is through our credit
agent, he seeks effectively that the customer actually spends the resource in the
house effectively, or in the renovation, or in the sanitation, that the resource is
not diverted to another purpose, this is very important. Second, the bank has
partners, logging consultants, in short, specialized people who work so that this
resource is used and that it has the lowest possible cost for the client and with
the minimum necessary quality.
Expert 3
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f. Future perspectives
Expert 6, Expert 1 and Expert 5 believe housing microfinance will not significantly develop in
Brazil, at least in the near future. Due to the factors hindering the development of housing
microfinance previously mentioned, there is not enough incentivizes for financial institution,
MIFs or NGOs to enter this market.
I think that the current moment is very complicated because of the economic
situation we are experiencing, there is the pandemic. In terms of fiscal deficit, it
was already big before the pandemic. The federal government does not have a
social vision for this, to encourage this type of action. So, I think, the government
has no interest, banks are also not interested because it is not a highly profitable
service for them. So I think, in the short term, I'm talking about the next 2-3
years, I don't see a different scenario in this regard.
Expert 6
I think it’s a good question, they don’t enter the reform area, I don’t even see
that the private initiative, nor an NGO or a group of new actors enter the reform
area, but I believe that neither the government nor the private initiative they will
finance renovations, because renovations requires monitoring, […] So, I don't
think for reform. For housing construction, the government has signaled that it
will cut funds in all areas, in education it will cut funds, in housing. So, I believe
and the curve will be decreasing, I think it will decrease and if private banks
believe it is a good deal, this will be an interesting market, but I think Brazil has
a lot of market for this area, but all agents are very cautious because they know
that, to invest in housing, I need to have the guarantee and the guarantee has to
be the house itself, and as long as the house is not actually the guarantee, it is
not legal, and, only it will work with the private sector, which will only enter if
it is able to do as it does with a car in auto financing.
Expert 1
Housing microfinance won’t develop unless the country changes fundamentally,
which is not likely to happen in the near future. […] Let’s face it, “Brasil é um
país do futuro e sempre será”.
Expert 5
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Expert 6 mentioned a new project of the government that has been announced in August 2020
and that is designed to replace My House My Life: Casa Verde Amarelo. The Casa Verde e
Amarela Program brought three main changes that deserve to be highlighted: (1) changes in
financing rates for properties in the North and Northeast; (2) possibility to finance improvement
and requalification of the property; and (3) the possibility of credit for urban land regularization.
The government this year announced the Casa Verde Amarelo, I don't know if
you heard about it. But Casa Verde Amarelo is still paper, right? So, we don't
know how it will be, if it will work out. But then, it would be possible to have
both at the same time
Expert 6
g. Policy recommendations
Expert 5 recommends that the FGTS adopts a system that is closer to INFONAVITS
functioning and also to expand the consorcio system:
I would suggest FGTS and the Caixa Economica to copy INFONAVITS. Brazil
won’t suppress FGTS but ultimately, they will have to modify it. Also, they
should expand consorcio system, which is the best market-driven initiative.
Expert 5
He believes the functioning of the FGTS and its main program My House My Life has several
downsides, such as the fact that the program enriches mainly lower-middle class and the
developers:
The real beneficiaries of the housing finance system in Brazil are the lower-
middle-class that get highly subsidized mortgages from the Caixa Economica to
buy apartments and houses.
Expert 5
There are 6 large developers in Mexico that are basically rich and funded mostly
by the subsidies of INFONAVITS. They absorb most subsidies and pass on some
them to lower-middle class people.
Expert 5
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Expert 5 believes consorcio is the best functioning system of housing finance for low-income
households:
Brazil has a very interesting case of housing finance for low-income people:
consorcio. […] That is a genuine example of housing microfinance where you
don’t have access to subsidize and want to avoid the astronomical interest rates
of banks. The consorcio are the most positive things about urban development
in Brazil.
Expert 5
h. Summary
First, several housing microfinance initiatives have been identified in the Brazilian context,
which demonstrates the existence of the practice in the country despite the lack of research on
this subject.
The results indicate that housing microfinance could fill a gap that neither My House My Life
nor the private sector answer at a significant scale yet. Indeed, as highlighted during the
interviews, the value proposition of My House My Life does not answer the need of all low-
income households suffering from housing deficit. The main reasons identified through the
interviews are the following: willingness to stay living in the same neighbourhood because of
the work distance and social bonds, preference for living in a house over an apartment,
excessive bureaucratie, ownership of a piece of land, limited scale and preference for
renovations over moving to a new unit. It is precisely this market gap that housing microfinance
could fill.
If there is a market gap, we can wonder why it has not been filled yet. The interviews conducted
helped us to identify the factor impeding the development of housing microfinance. They are
the following: profitability, general underdevelopment of microfinance in Brazil, the lack of
guarantees in case of default, the specific methodologies that must be created, the lack of
impulse from the government, the competition with other housing financing products or
programs, the corruption that would foster the maintaining of ineffective public programs.
Some clarifications have been made in relation to the legal framework of housing microfinance.
Housing microfinance institutions that are not classified as financial institutions, such as
OSCIP, do not need to comply with the body of law of the Central Bank. If financial institutions
would want to offer this type of products, they could not label it as ‘housing microcredit’
because the microfinance laws restrict the use of microfinance for this purpose, but could label
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it as ‘housing credit’ and in practice adapt the credit conditions to low-income populations. It
would be classified as a common credit operation.
Regarding best practices, one of the interviewees outlined the necessity of technical orientation
in order to effectively alleviate the housing deficit, otherwise it would only replicate favelas.
Despite these encouraging findings, interviewees tend to believe that housing microfinance
won’t significantly develop at least in the near future because all of the factors aforementioned.
Indeed, as Expert 5 outlined, housing microfinance won’t develop in Brazil unless the country
changes fundamentally, and the government creates the conditions for the practice to strive.
One of the interviewees gave the recommendation for housing policies in Brazil to make
evolving the FGTS towards a system similar to INFONAVITS in Mexico. Instead of directly
financing and building houses for low-income households, INFONAVITS provides subsidized
loans. In addition to this, he believed consorcio is the best functioning low-income housing
financing initiative in Brazil and should be incentivizes more by the government.
7. Concluding remarks
Housing microfinance in Brazil has an unexploited potential. The experiences of Latin and
Central America in housing microfinance indicate that the practice developed significantly
more in countries of the same geographical area that shares similar economic, social and politic
characteristics. Although we did not evaluate to what extent housing microfinance contributed
to alleviate the housing deficit in the countries where it developed significantly, we can draw
as a conclusion that the practice is economically and socially sustainable in these countries. The
analysis on housing programs outlined that an efficient housing policy is a combination of
different housing programs, targeting different household categories. It suggests that housing
microfinance can complement other state-led housing programs.
The empirical results are mixed: despite the existing market gap that could be filled by housing
microfinance, the challenges to the development of the practice are numerous. The experts tend
to believe the practice won²t significantly develop in the country in the near future.
Several limitations have been identified in this study, some of which have already been
introduced throughout the thesis.
The first limitation is related to the interviews. Due to the very low penetration of housing
microfinance in Brazil, the panel of experts interviewed is of only six individuals. To begin
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with, it has been hard to contact and manage to organise interviews with professionals working
in microfinance institutions that offer housing microcredits, first because of the limited number
of institutions that offer this type of product, and second because it was necessary to get contact
with professionals with managerial positions that have a deep knowledge of this product. To
continue with, as housing microfinance in Brazil has not been subject to lots of research yet,
very few researchers on the topic with knowledge on the Brazilian context have been identified.
The second limitation is related to the availability of recent data, and data in general. Indeed,
some of the data used were not available in the most recent years, and some other not produced
at an annual rate. We were facing this issue in the second part of the research as well.
The third limitation is related to the data of Mix Market. Being survey-based, not all financial
institutions contacted by the organization answered, leading to the underestimation of
microfinance data. If we cross the institutions offering housing microcredit in Brazil found in
the mapping of the existing housing microfinance initiatives with Mix Market, we can note that
the offering is strongly underestimated.
Because of the research limitations mentioned previously and some research gaps that were not
the focus of the study, there are opportunities for future research on the challenges of housing
microfinance expansion in Brazil.
Even though that is not directly related to the challenges of housing microfinance expansion in
Brazil, we observed in the second part of the research section the clear lack of comparable data
on housing deficit in Central and Latin America. We believe additional research in this field
would have a positive impact on research on housing microfinance, as comparable data on
housing deficit is of a central importance to be able to compare the impact of housing policies.
Generally, research is insufficient on the effect of housing microfinance, especially on poverty
(Grubbauer, 2019). As highlighted in the literature review, only one academic study has been
identified at giving answers to that question. There is a need for additional research in order to
have generalizable findings.
An interesting study would be to apply to the Brazilian case and to a more recent context the
study of World Bank and Capital Advisors (1998), namely assessing the number of low-income
households who would be willing to take out a loan for housing improvements and would be
able to make the repayment without falling under the poverty line. This would allow to produce
an estimation of the demand and the potential market.
94
In addition to this, research on housing microfinance in the Brazilian context is almost
inexistent. On the model of Mix Market, a survey-based research targeting exclusively the
Brazilian microfinance institutions offering housing microcredits would enable to draw
additional conclusions on the profitability, default rate applied specifically to the Brazilian
context, as well as assessing more accurately the current and potential market size of housing
microfinance in the country.
95
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9. Appendices
Appendix 1: Assessment criteria for housing deficit
Source: Bouillon (2012)
Appendix 2: Housing Deficit Categories in Rojas and Medellin (2011) analysis
Source: Rojas and Medellin (2011)
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Appendix 3: Cross-Country Evolution of Housing Shortages 1995-2006
Source: Rojas and Medellin (2011), calculation based on household surveys
Appendix 4: Urban Housing Deficits in Latin America and the Caribbean by country, 2009
Source: Bouillon (2012), based on Rojas and Medellin (2011)
106
Appendix 5: Housing Shortages by County in Latin America in 2009
Source: Rojas and Medellin (2011) based on Rojas and Medellin (2010)
107
Appendix 6: Housing Conditions by Income Quintiles in Latin America and the Caribbean, Mid-1990 and Late 2000s
Source: Bouillon (2012) based on Rojas and Medellin (2011)
108
Appendix 7: Interview Guide
*Ask for permission to tape record the interview
*Explain briefly the topic and focus of the study
Get the interview started
Ask the following questions
• What is your experience in relation with housing microfinance?
• [If the person works in a microfinance institution] What is the performance and default
rate of your microfinance product? Individuals of which income band are the target?
• Why do you think housing microfinance doesn’t develop more in Brazil?
• Why do you think the government doesn’t incentivize more this practice considering it
could alleviate the housing deficit with a lower cost for the state ? (lower in case of
subsidies, and no cost if no subsidies)
• How do you think it will evolve in the future?
Appendix 8: Interview with Expert 1 (Habitat for Humanity; interview in Portuguese)
[Expert 1] - [...] Desde da minha época na Habitat, já vi um grande desafio das microfinanças
geral no Brasil, por que, porque o Brasil democratizou o acesso ao crédito. O Brasil permitiu
que as famílias depois dos anos 2000, final de 1990 até 2000, o acesso ao cartão de crédito ficou
mais fácil pelas instituições financeiras formais e as famílias começaram a ter acesso de crédito
ou de material de construção porque nós microfinanças ou as pessoas comprarem uma casa ou
reformariam a sua casa. O que é Habitat percebeu inicialmente, Habitat queria trabalhar com
microfinanças habitacionais para construção e percebeu que o custo dessa construção, dessa
habitação, desta casa ficava um valor muito alto para a família, mesmo dividido ai 4 anos, 10
anos. Elas não tinham garantias e Habitat não tinha orçamento suficiente para construir a casa.
Aí se começou a pensar em microfinanças para reforma então grande foco no Brasil e alguns
países que eu conheci eu participei de alguns conferencias na Colômbia, Costa Rica, na América
Latina da Habitat e a grande discussão era isso era microfinanças para a reforma para
melhoramento, no sentido de ser menor o valor e os risco de inadimplência da família também
caiu. Mas para isso precisaria de um marco legal do governo então precisaria ter políticas
públicas. E aí eu não sei se você conhece, mas tem um forum o que é o Fórum de reforma
Urbana nacional. Esse fórum fala sobre a questão do direito do solo e uso e ocupação do solo,
ele fala também das leis para construção. Porque a família para construir ela precisaria também
ter o terreno. Na minha época na Habitat, as microfinanças no Brasil, Elena, caiu muito, caíram
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muito. Eu não sei se você encontrou muito material atual, mas o sentimento que eu tenho de
longe de que as pesquisas foram feitas em 2005, talvez 2009. Porque depois disso as
organizações internacionais foram embora, não tem mais dinheiro internacional para
microcrédito.
[E.Z.] – [...]
[Expert 1] - Eu vou falar só para você entender o histórico. O sentimento que eu tenho vai de
modo. O sentimento que eu tenho é que as microfinanças no Brasil não vivem mais, elas não
funcionam mais porque o sistema bancário brasileiro está desenvolvido, a Caixa Econômica
que o banco público do Brasil ela é o banco que de fato acessa através do Minha Casa Minha
Vida então quando Minha Casa Minha que é um programa do governo entrou de fato, a Habitat
e outras organizações cooperativas de crédito e outras NGOs, elas fizeram parceria com
governo, elas receberam dinheiro do governo. O que o governo não conseguia atuar nas
famílias então Habitat ficou dependendo da ação governamental o de repasse, transferências do
governo. Mas eu não conheço só na CEAPE a Visão Mundial não tem mais pouco no
microcrédito nas microfinanças. A Habitat não funciona mais para as microfinanças como
antes, é muito mais apoio comunitário porque o sistema bancário hoje atendem às famílias, as
famílias hoje acessem créditos. Eu acho que você pode olhar microfinanças não pelo olhar das
NGOs mas olhar pelo lado do setor bancário formal. Eu acho que isso é uma linha interessante,
mas existem muitas oportunidades, porque como você sabe Nordeste, onde eu moro, e outro
lugar do Brasil, não tem casa e a quantidade de filhos vai crescendo bastante e as famílias
continuam morando em situações precárias. Então existe no mercado, mas ao mesmo tempo
não vejo serviços financeiros para essas famílias atualmente.
[E.Z.] – [...] Por que você acha que o estado não tentou incentivar o setor privado a atuar nesse
segmento de reformas com microcrédito?
[Expert 1] - Eu acho ainda assim, são várias, diversas variáveis que influenciam. Mas tem uma
variável que talvez os livros não falam que chama-se cultura e cultura do povo, das pessoas eu
trabalhei na época da Habitat como consultor e fizemos alguns projetos com a Caixa Econômica
e eu, André, brasileiro, na hora que eu vejo uma família em situação de risco morando em uma
casa com teto caindo ou morando no bairro de insegurança. Na minha cabeça, eles deveriam ir
num lugar legal, seguro sem risco de casa cair o governo tentou fazer isso em algumas situações.
O problema é que culturalmente nós, não gostamos de regras. Então, aqui em Recife, havia
família que moravam perto da praia, que moravam em área de Mangue. Então as casas eram
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chamadas palafitas, essas casas eram muito ruims, e o governo levou essas famílias para
condomínios. Isso aconteceu em Recife e em vários lugares do Brasil. É o grande problema
inicialmente foi porque eram pescadores. Está com distante do seu trabalho, mas depois não foi
apenas isso. As famílias não tem uma cultura de viver em comunidade. Brasileiro, ele não é
muito bom para trabalhar com uma cultura coletiva ampla. Nós, brasileiros, não sabem trabalhar
como que os japoneses trabalham de forma coletiva. Então, tem que pagar condomínio,
satisfazer as regras do condomínio, regras de visita, respeitar outros. A outro coisa é que as
famílias pegam dinheiro e nem sempre utilizam dentro do que deveria ser utilizado. Por
exemplo, agora nós estamos com auxílio emergencial. Então, muita gente que precisa ter o
auxílio, pega e gasta para consumo - bebida festa - . Muitas vezes, esse dinheiro deveria ser
para materiais de construção, para mão de obra. A família usa em outras finalidades e os bancos
além de não ter garantia formal, eles não têm essa garantia então a inadimplência aumenta,
porque a família brasileira não aplica o dinheiro como deveria aplicar, não segue o
planejamento financeiro. [...] Então eu acredito que o governo não consegue fazer sozinho.
Brasil um país de dimensões muito grandes, então o governo não tem condições de atender a
todas as necessidades de moradia e reforma do Brasil. O setor privado ele consegue ter resultado
com outros finanças como consumo. A pessoa vem agora, pega o cartão de crédito, ela pega
para consumir. Eu consigo fazer os produtos mais rápido do que a habitação. Habitação é muito
custo e longo-prazo, a valor é muito alta e a outra coisa como você falou, precisaria ter leis que
beneficiaram os dois lados, leis que beneficiaram a família e leis que beneficiam aqui está
emprestando. O risco é muito alto. O problema no Brasil a que parte do solo, ele não tem uma
comprovação, ele não é legalmente formalizado. Essas famílias, elas vivem de ocupação,
historicamente no Brasil, essas famílias eram escravas e vindo para a cidade. Tem muitas
famílias que vivem em locais que não tem titularidade da propriedade. Para qualquer banco ou
agente financeiro, na hora de inadimplência, fica difícil resgatar esse dinheiro. E brasileiro
precisa ter lei para ter disciplina. Brasileiro, infelizmente, ele precisa ter alguma coisa que ele
tenha medo para cumprir, não é uma regra, mas a gente tem muito isso.
[E.Z.] – [...] Não entendo bem isso porque a cultura de crédito ao consumo aqui é muito comum,
e não entendo que as instituições financeiras dão muitos créditos ao consumo mas tem medo de
dar para reformas. [...] Não entendo porque as familias de baixa renda não conseguem emprestar
dinheiro que elas poderiam usar dum jeito útil, com material de construção por exemplo, mas
conseguem facilmente emprestar para coisas que elas mão precisam de verdade, como celular.
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[Expert 1] - Eu também não entendo, eu acho que inclusive você pegar dinheiro emprestado
para beber não faz sentido se você está numa situação difícil. Aí você fala não vou pegar
dinheiro para esse carnaval. Não tem lógica, então dá resposta começa pela sua pergunta.
Brasileiro é o tipo de pessoa que ele dá prioridade ao bem-estar, a alegria, do que a
responsabilidade. Quando eu falo de uma televisão. Quando eu falo de um celular talvez eu
esteja falando de R$ 1000, R$ 1500, quando nos falamos de uma habitação, falamos em valores,
talvez na casa dos 30 mil reais. Quando nós falamos de uma reforma na casa 10.000, 15.000
reais nesse processo. E o prazo disso é maior. Então o que que o comércio faz, o que que o
comércio pensa: Olha, eu vou dar um celular para André que esse celular leva no cartão de
crédito se André tem cartão de crédito o risco dele atrasar o lojista não vai receber, a operadora
do cartão é que vai ter a inadimplência. Então esse é o primeiro ponto aí. O segundo ponto é o
seguinte: o valor do celular, ele é menor do que o valor de uma habitação ou do que o valor de
uma reforma então com o mesmo dinheiro, digamos que com R$ 20000. Eu consigo R$ 20000
e eu faço o financiamento de 20 celulares, eu atendo 20 pessoas e isso diminui o risco. Eu
classifico talvez melhor. Agora, esses 20000 reais para uma só pessoa é mais difícil, uma pessoa
é tudo ou nada se eu acertar 100% se eu errar não teve 100%. Além disso. Quando eu compro
um celular eu vou usar no celular mais a internet, mas quando compra uma casa ou quando eu
faço a reforma da minha casa eu vou querer colocar dentro da minha casa outros produtos e eu
vou querer pegar dinheiro para colocar isso. Então, uma casa pede sofá, uma casa pede geladeira
nova e a linha que tá, pede uma geladeira não sei se eu tenho que comprar a melhor geladeira
ou fogão. Na prática quando a gente olha a sua família, se você tiver oportunidade de ir em
algumas instituições sociais e ir a campo você vai perceber famílias que talvez não tem o
alimento, mas que tem uma televisão e o celular melhor do que talvez o meu ou o seu. Isso não
é errado, mas não é prioridade. Então assim, no governo, depois que eu me vi em ONG, eu acho
que tem muito romantismo, então nesses meus 6 anos, 10 anos de ONG, eu vi muito romantismo
e a gente percebia estão havia muito romantismo, nos definimos produtos que a família podia
entrar com o nome na inadimplência. A gente tinha muito a ideia da palavra, mas a gente
percebeu que existe um pensamento equivocado no Brasil que é o seguinte: pobre é bom
pagador isso não é verdade, rico é mau pagador isso também não é verdade, pobre é tão bom
ou tão mal, e rico é tão bom ou tão mal. Isso vai depender da condição que de fato ele tenha
naquele momento, inclusive de trabalho, inclusive agora tem outras variáveis como agora o
caso de Covid que faz com que a pessoa atrase, mas não porque ela queira. Mas, classificar um
bom pagador ou mau pagador porque ele é pobre ou culturalmente abaixo esse foi um erro que
as instituições no Brasil tiveram.
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[E.Z.] - Então acho que tenho uma última pergunta sobre isso. Se você acha que minha casa
minha vida vai diminuir nos próximos anos. Você acha que talvez o governo vai puxar pra
iniciativa privada, e que, na cultura brasileira ficará muito conservador sobre esse tipo de coisa.
[Expert 1] - Acho uma boa pergunta, a área de reforma eles não entram, eu não vejo nem que
a iniciativa privada, nem uma ONG ou um grupo de novos atores entre na área de reforma, mas
eu acredito que nem o governo nem a iniciativa privada eles vão financiar reforma, porque
reforma exige acompanhamento, então eu tenho que acompanhar se as famílias estão aplicando
o dinheiro e se estão tecnicamente, esse é outro problema, no financiamento para consumo, eu
te dou o bem ou o dinheiro. No financiamento habitacional eu que dar o dinheiro e assistência
técnica, porque, as famílias constroem de qualquer jeito e constrói com risco. Então eu tenho
esses dois lados, o lado financeiro e o lado técnico. Então eu acho que para reforma não. Para
habitação construção o governo tem sinalizado que ele vai cortar as verbas em todas as áreas,
na educação ele vai cortar as verbas, na habitação. Então, eu acredito e a curva será decrescente,
eu acho que vai diminuir e se os bancos privados acreditarem que é um bom negócio, esse vai
ser o mercado interessante, mas eu acho que o Brasil tem muito mercado para essa área, mas
todos os agentes estão muito cautelosos porque sabem que, para investir em habitação, eu
preciso ter a garantia e a garantia tem que ser a própria casa, e enquanto a casa não for a garantia
de fato, é chato isso, não é legal, e, só vai funcionar com o setor privado que só vai entrar se ele
tiver condições de fazer como se faz com um carro em financiamento automotivo.
[E.Z] - …
[Expert 1] - No caso do carro, você financia o carro se você não paga ele é tomado, ele é
resgatado. No caso da casa, nem sempre, então eu acredito que os bancos privados eles só vão
trabalhar nessa área se eles conseguirem ter o mesmo poder de retorno que eles fazem com o
carro e outros bens nesse sentido, se não, não vai entrar porque se ele não pagar ele não tem a
garantia formal.
[E.Z] - Porque a garantia formal de uma casa, então, eu tenho um problema do terreno, se não
pertence a família, e, mesmo se o terreno pertence a família vai ser muito difícil com o processo
judicial...
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[Expert 1] Mas só uma sugestão, uma dica: você pode mostrar que existe demanda, existe déficit
habitacional, existe necessidade de casa, existe demanda, mas os fatores culturais precisam ser
considerados na hora da concessão do crédito, os fatores legais também das garantias e nesse
setor não olhar pessoas nem bancos como o Lobos e Cordeiros. Todos no Brasil por mais
simples que sejam são racionais todos podem ser bons e pode ser ruins então se você conseguir
mostrar, esses lados de todos os atores das famílias, do governo, do setor privado, eu acho que
você vai conseguir dar uma contribuição de fora sobre esse olhar das microfinanças no Brasil e
perceber porque as instituições estão indo embora.
Appendix 9: Interview with Expert 2 (Blusol ICC; interview in Portuguese)
[E.Z] … eu vi que o Blusol ICC oferece linhas de microcrédito para construção, reformas, água
e saneamento, e então eu queria saber um pouquinho se você sabe, a história, se faz tempo que
você abriu essas linhas de microcrédito, também se essas ações de microcrédito tem uma boa
proporção da carteira do banco e se vocês estão satisfeitos, essas são minhas primeiras
perguntas.
[Expert 2] Bom, dentro dos 3 produtos que tu falou, que é construção né? Para reformar,
saneamento básico, água e esgoto, né? Então nós temos três produtos, tá, construir, reformar e
saneamento básico e é tudo muito novo aqui para gente a gente não tinha, a instituição fez agora
em agosto 23 anos e a gente não trabalhava especificamente com esse produto, nenhum deles,
nenhum dos 3 alguma coisa lá atrás de pequenas reformas né, porque o nosso foco sempre foi
e ainda é quem é microempreendedor tem um pequeno empreendimento então sempre um
empreendedor aqui no nosso estado no Brasil, sempre voltado muito a material de mercadoria,
de matéria-prima, comprar uma máquina nova né? Nunca pensou muito assim: Ah, vou
reformar a minha casa, eu vou reformar a minha empresa nesse sentido sempre voltado a mais
capital de giro da matéria-prima, mercadoria ou um investimento imobilizado, né? Em
equipamento e tal. Então tinha alguma coisa, mas nada muito grande sempre pouquinha coisa.
E aí tu perguntou quanto tempo, né? Então faz exatos três anos, foi em setembro de 2017 que a
gente implantou o construído, exatamente que é para uma primeira moradia, que normalmente
é casal que acabou de se casar, bem novo ainda, lá nos seus 25 anos e querem fazer sua primeira
casa, então o financiamento é pra primeira casa então a exatos 3 anos foi em setembro de 2017,
que a gente construiu esse produto, e hoje para você ter uma ideia esse produto do só construir
ele é o mais social da instituição por que? Porque ele é o que tem a taxa mais baixa de todos os
produtos, trabalha com uma taxa média de 3,5% ao mês, o Construir é 2,5%, então a gente tem
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uma taxa um pouco subsidiada no construir é a mais baixa, então a gente diz aqui que é o
produto do Blusol mais social que a instituição tem, e aí novamente quando a gente criou foi
voltada para eles, a primeira casa, um casal que acabou de casar e tal, a gente começou a pensar
no desenho do produto e como seria como não seria, então fazem três anos hoje, pra você ter
uma ideia, em termo de carteira, a instituição hoje tem uma carteira de mais ou menos 50
milhões de Reais, tá esse é valor total da carteira, com mais ou menos 12 mil clientes, então só
para depois tu fazer um parâmetro perguntou também o tamanho dessa carteira do construir.
Depois me fala um pouquinho de reformar e até do água e esgoto então a carteira total da
instituição é 50 milhões com 12 mil clientes ativos. Agora vamo falar da carteira do Blusol
Construir aí o que ela representa em tamanho hoje passados três anos dentro desses 50 milhões,
dentro desses 12 mil clientes ativos, eu até puxei ontem algumas informações pra te passar hoje,
então vamos pegar a nivel de historico primeiro, depois se voce quiser passo as informações e
relatórios por email, e esses relatórios praticamente sao numeros, esse aqui é do Blusol construir
e depois tem o do reformar então eu vou te resumir um pouquinho o que está escrito aqui:
Primeira operação nesse período de três anos, não é um produto ainda grande, é um produto
ainda em desenvolvimento e é um produto que precisa evoluir, tem 3 anos e a empresa tem 23
anos, então lá no início de setembro até hoje 3 anos, a gente já emprestou 4 milhões em
microcrédito pro Blusol Construir, para fazer a primeira casa, e foram feitas 261 casas com os
4 milhões de reais emprestado. A carteira da instituição como eu falei pra você é de 50 milhões
a carteira ativa, né que é o que tá o dinheiro na rua hoje para esse cliente ela R$3.113.000,00
Essa carteira ativa do Blusol construir tá? Então a gente pode falar que ela faz parte de 6% a
7% da carteira da instituição, e neste casa o empréstimo é só para casa, só para construir, a casa
do zero. E, aqui na região nossa de Santa Catarina nós fazemos muita parcerias e muita parte
dessa casa, dessa primeira moradia, ela é daquelas casas de pré-fabricação, você já ouviu falar
né? Aquela casa de madeira ela ela é pronta, né? Então tem vários parceiros, várias lojas que
vendem esse tipo de casa pronta aí tem vários tamanho 50 metros quadrados 80 100 150, né?
Então nós temos vários parceiros que vendem essa casa e nós financiamos, então funciona bem
legal, tá então e a maioria delas, talvez 90%, são casas de madeira, tá? Até pelo próprio valor,
a gente empresta hoje na primeira moradia até R$ 25000, então esse é o valor do empréstimo,
a quanto que é uma casa dessa pronta aqui em Santa Catarina aqui no Brasil, pré-fabricada,
depende do tamanho, pode ser uma casa de 30 50 80 100 metros quadrados, mas vamos colocar
que uma casa dessa em média vale 20 mil reais, 30 mil reais, então o valor máximo é 25 mil,
em algumas situações a gente consegue que o valor total ele pague o valor da casa do nosso
cliente, ah a casa foi 22 mil por exemplo, então eu vou conseguir enquadrar o 22 mil, agora
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vamo imaginar que a pessoa resolver pegar uma casa que o valor é 35 mil, opa, o valor máximo
que nós emprestamos e 25 mil então teoricamente fica faltando 10 mil, então normalmente esses
10 mil aquele casal tem uma reserva né tem uma poupança para complementar aquele valor,
então pode acontecer de ter um valor um pouco mais alto mas aquela família aquele casal ele
tem o dinheiro para complementar e atualmente é de cliente ativo, de 261 empréstimos, alguns
já quitaram nesse período. Então hoje cliente ativo na carteira são 247. Do total de 12.000
também depois tu faz a conta, o que representa 246 em 12 mil, é um percentual ainda é pequeno,
mas é que o produto também ainda é novo. Um ponto legal que entra no Blusol construir por
exemplo, é a inadimplência que a gente sempre como uma instituição de microcrédito, a gente
sempre tem que usar 2 frentes, uma é a qualidade do empréstimo, saber emprestar bem, saber
emprestar com volume, quantidade, porém em paralelo saber emprestar bem, tem que ter
inadimplência baixa né, não adianta tu emprestar um monte de depois sua inadimplência ser
alta, tu paga um preço, então nosso produto do Blusol construir nós temos uma inadimplência
de 0,29%, então é uma taxa de inadimplência muito boa, excelente, para ter ideia comparando
com outras da instituição a média da inadimplência total da carteira ta na faixa de 2,4%, no total
da carteira dos 50 milhões, do Blusol construir 0,29% ou seja bem baixa então esse público,
esse perfil de pessoas que querem fazer sua primeira moradia geralmente eles pagam em dia,
porque eu peguei dinheiro para minha casa né, pra minha primeira moradia então eles valorizam
muito isso até porque em algum momento também pagava aluguel morava de favor morava
com os pais e aí pegaram aquele dinheiro e aí honram em pagar em dia, provando aí a
inadimplência ela é super baixa né, e aí dentro desse relatório que a gente tem aqui é, te dá
vários dados necessários para seu trabalho por exemplo também né, o empréstimo em si é pro
casal, mas quantos % desse o cliente foi homem ou mulher, o homem deu 52% a mulher 48%
por exemplo, então tem alguns dados ali que a gente pode avaliar também, nesse caso são
sempre pessoas, esse produto ainda ele não contempla quem é empreendedor, é só pra quem é
funcionário de empresa, então todos os clientes desse produto é pra quem é funcionário de
alguma empresa, é o que a gente chama aqui de cliente social, esse é um breve resumo do Blusol
Construir. Ai então vamos falar um pouquinho do Blusol Reformar que é um empréstimo para
fazer um quarto novo, pra botar um muro na casa, para reformar cozinha, ele é amplo para fazer
qualquer tipo de reforma na casa daquela daquela pessoa né, é um produto mais ou menos
também lançado quase na mesma época do construir, tanto que os valores também são bem
similares, que a gente liberou até agora foi R$3.475.000,00 em 597 operações do Blusol
Reformar, a nível de carteira que é o que está hoje no mercado aproximadamente
R$1.700.000,00 quase a metade do construir, por que que é quase a metade do construir? Tendo
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até inclusive mais clientes, 379 clientes? Lembrando lá, o construir R$3.100.00,00 de carteira
246 clientes, no reformar tem R$1.700.000,00 e 380 cliente, ou seja, a metade da carteira de
valor e talvez uns 30% a mais de clientes porque uma coisa e outra porque o Só Construir é um
valor médio mais alto como eu falei antes a gente empresta até 25 mil, então dificilmente o
Blusol Construir terá um investimento abaixo de 15 mil, talvez de 15 a 25 mil então é um valor
médio mais alto, exatamente porque é pra comprar casa, no reformar não. Ah, eu quero fazer
uma reforma lá de botar piso lá na garagem ou fazer um muro aí essa reforma vai custar 3 mil
reais… 4 mil. Então automaticamente a gente vai fazer mais operação com valor mais baixo
então reformar é isso ele começa com o valor menor né podendo até ser um valor mais alto só
que a gente tem a noção de que a reforma tem o valor bem mais baixo do que construir a sua
casa né por isso tem a diferença entre o construir e ou reformar, fazendo um breve resumo, e
pra concluir essa minha primeira fala do saneamento básico, do água e esgoto, esse é um
produto que é bem mais recente ele fez 1 ano agora e esse produto não foi necessariamente
construído por nós, isso é uma parceria da Water, já ouviste falar? Water.org é uma instituicao
americana que tem fundos internacionais e tal, sabe aquele ator Matt Damon, ele é uma das
pessoas que aporta dinheiro nessa Water. A Water que que é, é uma instituição americana e
esse Matt Damon é um dos sócios né, ou um voluntário financeiro que ajuda nesse projeto, é
um projeto extremamente social que atinge muitas pessoas, de comunidades muito carentes,
nos Estados Unidos, na África aqui na América do Sul, muitas vezes comunidades, casas, que
não tem nenhum tipo de controle, saneamento de água, esgoto, nada, aquela coisa que pensa,
meus Deus, como é que pessoas podem morar aqui. Então essa Water faz projetos no mundo
inteiro relacionado a saneamento básico e ano passado ela resolveu fazer uma parceria com nos
também, com o microcrédito então a gente conversou com eles no ano passado, eles até vieram,
tem uma pessoa aqui no Brasil que representa a Water, né? Eles fizeram um treinamento com
a gente, isso faz 1 ano. E nós criamos esse produto em parceria com nossa instituição, então
não é um produto 100% do Blusol, só que o dinheiro toda situação de análise é toda nossa. E
são valores de até 15.000. Então essa situação de água e esgoto saneamento básico é
especificamente para isso, fazer o saneamento básico novo do banheiro, caixa d'água, a parte
de água para consumo, enfim, toda essa situação que a pessoa aquela família não tem na sua
casa, é mais pra isso. E aí são valores até 15.000, esse é um produto bem novo que a gente tem
dificuldade de acessar de trabalhar porque, como é um projeto internacional, eles exigem uma
renda per capita muito baixa, ou seja, uma renda por pessoa na família muito baixa e aqui para
nós no estado, tanto comparado no próprio Brasil, Santa Catarina a região sul do Brasil para
Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, nesses três estados junto com São Paulo, Rio de
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Janeiro e Minas Gerais, tem uma renda per capita mais alta, e, o Nordeste do Brasil tem muito
mais problemas financeiros com as pessoas. Então a renda per capita que o projeto exige é
R$900,00 que é bem baixo, ela se enquadra bem no Brasil, no Norte Nordeste, mas aqui pra
gente, encontrar famílias com essa renda per capita de 900 reais é muito pouco, deveria ser mais
alto esse valor para nós 1500 reais… 2000 per capita, só que é do projeto, a gente não pode
mexer. Então nós temos dificuldades de colocar esse dinheiro no mercado esse saneamento
básico, água e esgoto que é um produto bem legal, bem social, só que é um produto que dentro
da população aqui do Estado, a gente tem dificuldade de colocar aí no mercado, ele tem um
limite de até R$ 15000, é um produto legal, só que a nossa equipe ela tem dificuldade porque a
gente acaba emprestando valores mais altos, mas ele existe tá? Mas hoje, dentro desse seu
trabalho, analisando o Blusol, e analisando seu trabalho de tese de mestrado referente às
microfinanças habitacionais enfim, o que é mais legal, analisando o Blusol pro teu trabalho
seria o Blusol Construir, né, esse sim é um projeto bem social, é um projeto que tem 3 anos,
desenhamos exclusivamente para primeira moradia, para aquele casal novo que quer investir
numa casa social, ou seja, uma casa pequena claro, né? Ele é bem legal e enquadra bem no
desenho de trabalho que nem o teu, e o reformar é um pouco mais ampliado, né? Mas enquadra
nessa situação sim, quem nunca fez uma pequena reforma na sua casa, no seu apartamento,
enfim, então ele se enquadra muitas vezes também em uma pequena reforma na sua moradia,
tá? Então basicamente voltada ao teu título de trabalho ao teu tema. A gente tem o Blusol
Construir, o Blusol Reformar e o Blusol Água e Esgoto.
[E.Z] Eu queria saber qual do seu público alvo para essas linhas de crédito especialmente
reformas e construir, qual é o público alvo em termo de renda por que eu queria saber para
acessar o potencial… Eu tenho essa tabela e queria saber quem é o público alvo aqui então é a
distribuição da população que trabalha por nível de salário, meio até 1, 1 até 2 e 2 até 3 e queria
saber quem é o seu público alvo para essas linhas de crédito?
[Expert 2] Como vamos considerar o caso da família, o homem e a mulher, então podemos
considerar no mínimo 2 mil reais, mas eu colocaria na média de 3 a 5 mil reais na família.
[E.Z] Então, eu queria saber se você tem uma opinião nisso, por que essas linhas de microcrédito
no Brasil não são mais comuns, porque tem poucos bancos que fazem isso, eu só achei tipo,
Blusol, Banco da Família e alguns outros mas muito pequenos então eu queria saber se você
tem uma opinião de porque é assim?
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[Expert 2] É, no Brasil existe um banco público, a Caixa Econômica Federal, ela ficou muito
especializada em financiamento habitacional, então hoje qualquer pessoa no Brasil, claro, numa
classe social aí talvez de 5 salários mínimos pra cima ta, 5 mil pra cima mais ou menos, seria
uma classe média baixa ta, qualquer pessoa que esteja querendo construir ou comprar um
apartamento ou fazer uma casa num salário de uma classe média baixa 5 mil, pode até ser mais
baixo, já na hora pensa na Caixa Econômica, e a Caixa no Brasil tem linhas habitacionais de
crédito muito boas, inclusive eu tenho também um apartamento financiado pela caixa, então é
muito comum no Brasil pessoas que querem compra um apartamento ou casa, pensar na caixa
econômica, e eles atendem público desde 5 salários mínimos ou um pouco menos, até quem
quer comprar um apartamento de 5 milhões, eles financiam todos os públicos, então eles são
muito fortes no Brasil, muito, a Caixa financia muito no Brasil, apartamento, imoveis, só que
ela tem um limite por exemplo para atender esse público do microcrédito que muitas vezes e
um público que, a Caixa claro, como é um órgão público, eu quero comprar um apartamento
como eu comprei, o meu apartamento tem que ter escritura pública, tem tá todo legalizado tem
que estar com a documentação toda em dia 100% e a caixa vai financiar uma parte pra mim,
por exemplo eu financiei 30% para mim, os outros 70% eu tenho que ter, mas tem vários
percentuais la, para atingir esse público socialmente mais vulnerável, com renda abaixo de 4 3
2 salários mínimos, muitas vezes eles querem fazer uma casa, ou comprar uma casa que nao
esta com a documentação toda certa, ou simplesmente é um contrato de compra e venda, não
tem escritura no cartório, ou aquele casal novo que é o nosso público né, o que que acontece
talvez em 70, 80% dos casos é que os pais de um ou de outro, ou do homem ou da mulher, os
pais cederam um pedaço do terreno para construir, só que o terreno é do pai então a caixa por
exemplo não iria financiar porque está no nome do pai, nao tem escritura e para nós na Blusol
não tem problema, então esse público pra caixa é difícil acessar exatamente muito por essa parte
de renda per capta ser um pouco mais baixa e também por essa parte de documento tal que a
caixa exige tudo, tudo certinho, só que a caixa atende muito público, tanto que tem um programa
aqui, minha casa minha vida, que é um programa muito grande, que são apartamentos mais
baratos, e tal que tem esse tipo de acesso, mas muitas vezes as pessoas querem construir uma
casinha, não querem morar em apartamento, querem uma casa que seja de 20, 25, 30 mil, mas
querem uma casa, e aquela casa muitas vezes vai ser construída dentro do terreno do pai, da
família, de um irmão, às vezes é um terreno que cabe 3, 4 casas então esse produto, esse público,
como tu falou, ah o microcrédito ta começando a trabalhar agora, com algumas instituições
maiores, o Banco da Família é uma instituição grande aqui em Santa Catarina, nós somos
grandes também, tem algumas menores, no Brasil tem algumas também, a gente começou agora
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trabalhar com esse produto, é um produto recente pra muita gente, talvez o Banco da Família
esteja aí a mais tempo, talvez uns 5, 6 anos não sei, e nós 3 anos, então é um produto recente,
atender esse público para a maioria das instituições de microcrédito, então por isso talvez alguns
numeros nao sao tao grande ainda né, então é muito em função disso, a caixa a nível de Brasil
atende um público muito grande, porém, existe ainda um público que não é atendido que nem
seja atendido exatamente por isso por sua acao de renda per capita e por sua ação de parte
documental que a caixa exige de quem está construindo ou comprando, eu vejo mais ou menos
nesse parâmetro, porém para nós ainda é novo, são dados iniciais legais, só que claro, a gente
precisa evoluir porque é um produto ainda que para nós é de 3 anos só.
[E.Z] E quando você fala das créditos da Caixa, você fala dos créditos das linhas de créditos
normais ou de minha casa minha vida?
[Expert 2] Não, o minha casa minha vida é um programa habitacional da Caixa, o mais popular,
então tem casas e apartamentos, então esse consegue atingir um público com uma renda per
capita mais baixa, bem legal, só que como eu falei, aquele público ele nao quer morar num
apartamento, numa casa popular, quer construir uma casinha dentro do terreno da família, só
que a caixa tem esse produto, espetacular aqui no Brasil, só que, ah, tu quer pegar 100, 200,
300 mil, pode também, qualquer pessoa no Brasil que vá comprar o seu primeiro imovel naquela
cidade, a caixa não financia 2, é 1 só, as vezes tu quer financiar, quer comprar um apartamento
de 500 mil, a caixa financia, então como eu falei antes, ela atende todo publico que tu imagina
desde a família mais carente do programa minha casa minha vida ou um público como uma
classe média, classe média alta, ela enquadra em todo público que precisa de casa a caixa atende.
[E.Z] Então a partir de 5 mil reais esse tipo de público tem acesso a linhas de crédito normais?
elas já podem fazer um crédito normal, num banco, na caixa ou em outros bancos?
[Expert 2] Não, acho que até tem abaixo de 5 mil, por exemplo, minha casa minha vida é até
abaixo, você consegue, tendo uma renda familiar de 3 mil,4 mil, acho que tem isso, mas é o que
eu falei, às vezes a família não quer morar naquele tipo de imovel ele prefere fazer uma casa no
terreno da família, aí a caixa ela não financia mas até um pouco abaixo pelo minha casa minha
vida, tem para renda per capita mais baixa sim.
[E.Z] Mas o minha casa minha vida, esse programa público, a partir de qual nível de renda as
pessoas vão conseguir ter acesso a linhas de crédito normal, crédito habitacional ou normal no
Itaú, Santander?
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[Expert 2] No caso de banco privado, como eu falei pra ti, a caixa, um banco público tem
dinheiro público subsidiado, para mim é difícil eu te falar hoje de banco privado, mas a caixa a
gente conhece porque é um banco público as informações são públicas, eu comprei um
apartamento pela caixa então eu sei mais ou menos como funciona e ja banco privado é difícil
eu te falar, tem que ser cliente daquele banco, né, então eu não tenho esse tipo de informação
mas, todos os bancos no Brasil sejam públicos ou privados têm linhas de crédito habitacionais,
banco Safra, Itaú, HSBC, todos bancos no Brasil tem linha de crédito habitacional com taxas
muitos boas, como a gente vê em propagandas, taxas muito atrativas, pode ser até que sejam
parecidas com a da caixa, porque já é cliente, por exemplo um cliente Safra, que está lá há 15
anos, tem poupança, aquele negocio de registro de reciprocidade, deve ter uma linha de crédito
boa lá, mas não tenho como te dar essa informação, mas todos bancos privados e até o próprio
banco do Brasil, todos tem linha de crédito habitacional, 100%. Só que a nível de taxa, a taxa
tem haver com o cliente daquele banco, mas muitas vezes as taxas habitacionais é taxa ao ano
né 3, 4, 5, 7% ao ano né, são taxas muito boas.
[E.Z] Então, a ICC Blusol recebe subsídios do governo, ou de outras organizações, exceto a
organização Water?
[Expert 2] Não, pro Blusol Construir, que a gente tem a taxa mais subsidiada não, é um dinheiro
que a gente capta do BNDES, um banco federal, do BADESC um banco público estadual, da
microcredit que é um fundo holandês, só que a gente cria um fundo que a gente tem e esse
fundo a gente vai emprestar pro microcrédito tradicional, pra quem é empreendedor ou nesse
caso pro Blusol Construir que é mais baixo, mas a gente não tem, nem no água e esgoto em
parceria com a Water não tem dinheiro, o dinheiro é nosso, é uma parceria em algum tipo de
treinamento que eles já deram, mostraram algum tipo de materiais, reuniões, mas o dinheiro é
nosso entendeu, não é um dinheiro deles, eles não botam dinheiro aqui pra nós emprestamos,
não, nesse caso o dinheiro é todo do Blusol, então, pra nenhuma linha de crédito hoje, dá
instituição, tem dinheiro doado ou subsidiado, é tudo dinheiro da instituição.
[E.Z] E, das minhas pesquisas eu vi que não tem um quadro jurídico para microfinanças
habitacionais e, o quadro jurídico é muito especial pro microcrédito produtivo e você acha que
tem um posicionamento do governo e do banco central de não apoiar essas linhas de
microcrédito e por que? (...) O Estado parece não apoiar outras instituições para o microcrédito
habitacional para tentar reduzir o déficit habitacional, mas nem existe um quadro jurídico, por
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exemplo, em comparação ao microcredito corporativo que tem regras muito precisas sobre
valor limite, renda limite que também esforça os bancos...
[Expert 2] Existe o PNMPO (Programa Nacional de Microcrédito Produtivo Orientado) que ali
tem regras, especificamente do microcrédito produtivo orientado, regras que todas as
instituições de microcrédito ou até bancos que queiram operar este produto, está lá muito claro,
frente a essa parte habitacional no microcrédito é isso, dentro daquela regra do PNMPO nós
criamos o produto construído dentro daquela regra, pode ver que ela nao ta fora daquilo lá, já
um negócio maior como tu falou, habitacional, sim, não vou dizer que ela não é aquele
monopólio na íntegra, ele é uma dominância grande claro, por ser federal, por ser público, quase
é um monopólio, mas não chega a ser porque como nos falamos antes tem bancos particulares,
o próprio banco do brasil também financia habitacional só que a caixa que tem o domínio maior,
a caixa que tem isso na história dela financiar casas, apartamentos, imoveis no Brasil, pode ser
até que tenha regras claras para isso no Banco Central, mas a gente não tem essa informação, é
porque é uma coisa do Banco Central, a própria instituição de microcrédito no Brasil que a
gente chama de OSCIP né, elas não são subordinadas ao Banco Central, então provavelmente
todos esses bancos particulares, Banco do Brasil e Caixa tem uma regra muito clara em
programa habitacional, oh, quem quiser operar programa habitacional no Brasil através de
dinheiro particular ou público, Caixa, BB ou bancos particulares tem que seguir essa regra, com
certeza se de repente você entrar no site do banco central deve ter regra lá, mas a gente não tem
nem informação nem acesso, porque não nos interessa, até porque a gente não precisa prestar
contas ao banco central, então eu imagino com certeza que esses bancos que operam, linhas
habitacionais deve ter um controle muito grande, regras muito claras no Banco Central para
esse tipo de linha de Crédito. (...) Quando a gente fala de minha casa minha vida, programa
habitacional do Brasil, aplicado pela Caixa Econômica, às vezes só o nome que não é, mas se
for pegar o minha casa minha vida, as vezes é 50, 80, 100, 150 mil um apartamento ou uma
casa, só pelo fato de ser valores mais baixos, poderia enquadrar como microcrédito habitacional,
mas as vezes é um nome, não se preocupa necessariamente com a nomenclatura, as vezes nao
tem aquele nome, microcrédito habitacional, só que é um programa que no entendimento do
tamanho do dinheiro, é um microcrédito, so que nao tem aquele nome microcrédito, então as
vezes nao se preocupa muito com o nome que é dado às vezes não tem um título como
microcrédito produtivo orientado que é pra quem é empreendedor, lá é dado o nome
microcrédito, mas muitas vezes existe um programa, inclusive esse da caixa, é um programa
com valores mais baixos, só que com outro nome que eles dão, então não necessariamente às
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vezes um nome tem haver com sim ou com nao, entao como eu falei, a caixa atende muita
gente, que é um público similar ao do Blusol, com uma renda per capita mais baixa, só que é
um outro nome, eles não precisam colocar microcrédito, microfinanças, colocam outro tipo de
nome, entao nao te atende ao tipo de nome e sim as regras lá dentro do programa minha casa
minha vida, que esse tipo de regra tem haver com microcrédito, que são dinheiros pequenos,
mas o nome nao tem haver, entendeu? Preocupa se atentar se se enquadra em renda familiar per
capita baixa, isso é microcrédito.
[E.Z] Você conhece outros bancos que oferecem essa linha de microcrédito habitacional, talvez
você conheça outras que eu nao achei.
[Expert 2] Caixa, Banco do Brasil, Banco do Nordeste, o Banco do Nordeste é um banco público
que atende o Norte e Nordeste do Brasil, mas principalmente Nordeste, mas é público também,
mas diferente da Caixa e do BB, ele é um banco que atende muito microcrédito, tanto que, o
maior programa de microcrédito do Brasil é do Banco do Nordeste, então eles tinham lá um
programa dentro do próprio banco que é microcrédito, então hoje quando se fala muito de
microcrédito no Brasil é atendido pelo banco do nordeste, então quando tu entra lá no site do
Banco do Nordeste começa vasculhar que tu vai encontrar lá microcrédito, e lá dentro pode ser
que tu encontre com o nome microcrédito habitacional, ou como linha de crédito para casa, mas
com outro nome também, mas o banco do Nordeste hoje é um banco público federal e trabalha
muito forte com microcrédito, ai tem os bancos que têm no mundo inteiro, Itaú, Safra, Hsbc e
de microcrédito nós temos instituições similares a Blusol, mas não são muitas no Brasil, talvez
a gente fala de que nao tenha 50 no Brasil. (...) Banco grande habitacional é a Caixa, Banco do
Nordeste lá eles tem microcrédito ai tem que vasculhar lá por dentro do site, é, de instituição
de microcrédito talvez tenha no Brasil cerca de 50, no Brasil inteiro que é enorme, das 50 talvez
tenha aí 10 que são do tamanho do Blusol, e a Blusol taria aí entre as 5 maiores do Brasil,
tirando o Banco do Nordeste que tem lá o programa de microcrédito, falando só de instituição
OSCIP de microcrédito, então tem aí talvez umas 50, e o Blusol está entre as 5 maiores, então
tem muito haver com isso aí, tem haver com, ah, às vezes a instituicao nao é tao grande, ela
acaba tendo um produto meio genérico, como tu falou, ah, tá lá, enquadra, mas nao tem
separado, o que é uma coisa o que que é outra, a casa e o coiso é junto, isso é normal? O próprio
produto é uma coisa só né, então às vezes é normal de instituições menores ter essa situação de
enquadramento meio geral, empréstimo microcrédito geral, segrega muito, então isso é comum,
talvez a gente consiga começar a ter esse tipo de informação em instituição um pouco maior
que tenha mais tempo, experiência, e as coisa naturalmente elas vão evoluindo, que isso é
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normal em qualquer ramo, e em qualquer tipo de atividade né, então no nosso caso como é um
pouco maior a gente consegue separar um pouco mais algumas situações né, mas é como eu
falei, de instituição de microcrédito, 50 no Brasil, 10 maiores e 5 um pouco maior, então, no
site da associação nacional, nós temos a associação nacional de microcrédito, que é a BCRED,
é, no site da BCRED lá vai tá provavelmente todas elas, todas as instituições cadastradas,
associadas a BCRED, nem todas no Brasil são associadas claro, é uma associação nacional, lá
talvez tenha umas 25, então quer dizer que tem mais umas 20 e poucas que nao sao associadas
e vamos dizer que as maiores do Brasil estão na BCRED mas nem todas, e algumas já
conseguem ter uma gestão um pouco mais ampliada, umas tem coisa únicas, um só produto.
[E.Z] Você acha que isso vai evoluir nos próximos anos, um pouco mais de instituicoes vão
abrir esses tipos de linha de microcrédito ou que vai ficar incomum no Brasil?
[Expert 2] Assim oh, nós acabamos entrando nesse programa né, faz 3 anos, a gente achou que
ia ser um mercado interessante, ele ta evoluindo, nao ai talvez no ritmo que nós esperávamos,
pra ser bem claro, porque a maioria das instituições de microcrédito como são pequenas, na
hora pensam quase tudo aquilo que eu falei antes, ah tem a caixa econômica, ah pra que que a
gente vai abrir um produto de microcrédito uma taxa mais alta, com um crédito menor, sendo
que a caixa faz financiamento de 10, 20, 30 anos até 50 anos, uma taxa bem baixa, mas como
eu falei, dentro de regras, documento, cartório, tudo certo, mas ai instituições menores pensam,
quem quiser comprar sua primeira casa tem a caixa econômica, porque lá como eu falei tem o
programa minha casa minha vida, tem programas bem sociais, bem de microcrédito, para sua
primeira casa, então alguns se interessaram, dentro da instituição de microcrédito a montar um
produto específico, direcionado, então muito seja essa visão. Nós resolvemos montar, como eu
falei, a gente fez 23 anos agora, aos 23, 3 faz que nós temos esse produto, então pra nós é um
produto novo também, então nos ficamos 20 anos sem esse produto, tocamos, crescemos, é um
produto que a gente resolveu criar, temos ai como eu passei uma carteira de 3 milhões e 250
clientes, dentro também, tentando ajudar um pouco na resposta, olhando hoje, com certeza é
um mercado, ele não é tão amplo em função da caixa pra poder atender esse público também,
mas é um mercado que nós do microcrédito tem pra trabalhar também tanto que nós temos esses
clientes, a gente pode atender esse público, ele pode crescer, a gente tá fazendo ele crescer,
porque todos ano cresce um pouco, então pro nosso modo de ver pro Blusol esse produto ele
vai continuar crescendo, ele vai evoluir, ele vai cada vez ter mais cliente, na nossa visão, é um
produto que a gente criou, e ta indo bem, tá evoluindo, tanto construir, como reformar, diferente
lá do saneamento básico, que a gente tem que avaliar melhor ainda, mas esses dois na nossa
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visão é produto de carteira e produto para crescer, não é produto para determinado período, é o
produto hoje mais social do Brasil do Blusol, então a gente quer ter esse braço mais social
também, o microcrédito por si só ele já é uma atividade social, ah, mas o que mais a gente pode
trabalhar, porque nao uma primeira casa, então ele é extremamente social em função da própria
taxa subsidiada e um prazo mais longo, a gente faz em até 4 anos pra pagar, então no nosso
modo de ver para esse público a gente vai continuar crescendo e tentar cada vez melhorar um
pouquinho porque cada vez a gente faz um ajuste no produto, aumenta um pouco o valor, porque
no início a gente trabalhava com 15 mil, um pouco mais conservador e agora nós estamos em
25 mil, pode ser que ano que vem a gente aumente para 30, 40 , vai depender da própria
demanda, a própria demanda nos coloca, 25 agora está pouco, vamos colocar 30, 35 então na
nossa visão esse é um produto que tá dando certo que vai ficar. que a gente vai trabalhar sempre
para ir ajustando para cada vez evoluir mais, no caso do microcrédito habitacional.
Appendix 10: Interview with Expert 3 (Banco da Familia; interview in Portuguese)
[Expert 3] - Tá ok então, é, nós no banco da família você conhece, provavelmente deve ter
pesquisado, né, o nosso site? Nós somos uma OSCIP, formada por alguns empresários de
Lages/SC que se reuniram e juntamente com o município de Lages que também apontou
recursos. Nos aportamos recursos inicialmente no banco para justamente trabalhar com
microcrédito na nossa região, e, esse microcrédito ele evoluiu para uma microfinanças, então
além do crédito propriamente dito pro empreendedor para negócios nos expandimos isso pra
diversos setores hoje o banco trabalha com uma linha bem grande de produtos e entre eles né
tem a bf casa e o bf saneamento e o bf reformas e esses 3 eu acho que está mais próximo do teu
tema então, inicialmente foram assim, a gente sempre teve esse sonho de gente poder propiciar
nosso cliente aos necessitados de ter a moradia que nós entendemos que é, uma das principais,
os principais valores que fazem com que a condição de vida das pessoas melhor, é ter uma
moradia, a família poder ter uma melhor moradia com melhor saneamento, enfim, acho que
isso é importantíssimo para a melhoria da qualidade de vida que essa é nossa missão maior do
banco, melhoria da qualidade de vida das pessoas e então a gente sempre teve esse sonho. [...]
Mas então a gente sempre tinha este sonho, quando nós iniciamos no microcrédito de estender
esse microcrédito para financiamento da casa de saneamento e reformas. Nos iniciamos na
realidade com reformas, foi nosso primeiro produto que tivemos, e de casas demorou um pouco
mais pois nos tinhamos dificultades de funding, o financiamento de moradia precisa de um
prazo mais estendido até que nós tomamos a decisão de começar. e hoje é uma carteira
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importante para o banco, nós temos umas 2000 moradias financiadas ou em financiamento ou
ativas, e hoje representa um volume de mais de 10% da carteira do banco já o financiamentos
de moradias, então é uma carteira expressiva, e se nos juntarmos mais ainda a área de
financiamentos de reformas que é mais antiga e mais a do saneamento eu diria que estaríamos
perto da metade da carteira do banco.
[E.Z.] - Eu queria saber, eu não vi no site, o valor mínimo e máximo que são para essas linhas
de crédito?
[Expert 3] - Na realidade, como eu sou vice-presidente do conselho, eu trabalho mais com as
estratégias e não na operação efetiva. Mas eu posso te dizer o seguinte, nosso público alvo e
nosso financiamento alvo são os clientes que não conseguem acessar o minha casa minha vida,
esse programa do governo, nós estamos abaixo disso e justamente para dar a possibilidade de
crédito a aquelas pessoas que às vezes não tem terreno, mas tem um pedaço de área o lado da
casa do pai. A gente não exige escritura de terreno para financiar casa então é um diferencial
grande e a nossa missão é melhorar a qualidade de vida da pessoa, se a pessoa está em um
rancho caindo, se ela esta em baixo da ponte e nós vimos que ela tem condição de acessar o
empréstimo a gente faz na medida que ele precisa. Então nós temos um financiamento médio
da nossa moradia eu poderia dizer para você que é em torno de R$ 10,000, de 8 a 10 mil reais,
que são casas que você se surpreende pela qualidade dela com esse valor de recurso né, é um
valor baixo tendo em vista hoje o custo da construção no país e se você considerar ainda nas
capitais como São Paulo certamente você vai ver que lá com 10 mil reais você não faria nada,
e aqui, a gente consegue fazer uma casinha decente, uma casa em torno de 30 a 40 metros
quadrados de madeira, todas as nossas moradias são moradias de madeira, e eu diria que aqui
tem financiamento até um pouco maior de casas além de 20 mil reais. E agora nos estamos
iniciando a nossa intenção de aumentar um pouco essa régua e ir um pouco além de ir para uma
qualidade de moradias um pouco superior, né? Talvez aí chegar até seus 40, 50, 60 mil reais aí
já passamos para moradias tratadas, de madeira tratada, com uma durabilidade bem maior com
uma resistência bem maior, com áreas maiores e um acabamento melhor. Seria um custo bem
abaixo do custo do minha casa minha vida mas já atingindo um público com mais condições aí
justamente aquele pessoal que quer sair do aluguel e pode pagar uma prestação um pouquinho
maior porque ele vai sair do aluguel. Então são dois públicos diferentes, um é aquele que
realmente não tem condição nenhuma, né de acessar inclusive financiamento nem nada e a
gente busca uma maneira de ele poder pagar ,e o incrível disso aí tudo é que é uma é uma das
carteiras nossas ai do banco com menos inadimplentes, nós estamos com a inadimplência menor
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que 2% nessa carteira de moradias e isso é muito interessante e a gente vê que a gente tá muito
confiante na nossa missão disso aí porque o cliente reconhece né? Que o banco faz todo esse
esforço para financiá-lo com condições especiais, a gente tem taxa de juros especiais dentro do
microcrédito, na microfinanças, e o cliente entende que ele tem que efetivamente pagar para o
banco ajudar mais pessoas.
[E.Z.] - Para esse tipo de linhas de crédito tem uma assistência técnica ou como controle no
jeito que as pessoas vão gastar o dinheiro?
[Expert 3] - É, não vou dizer assim que a gente tem um pleno controle porque não é o nosso
não é o nosso objetivo e nem a gente conseguiria ter isso porque o banco teria que ter
engenheiros e o banco não tem isso. O que a gente faz é através do nosso agente de crédito, ele
busca efetivamente que o cliente realmente gaste o recurso na casa efetivamente, ou na reforma,
ou no saneamento né, que o recurso não seja desviado para outra finalidade isso é
importantíssimo. Segundo, o banco tem parceiros, madeireiras consultoras, enfim, gente
especializada que trabalha para que esse recurso seja utilizado e que tenha um custo menor
possível para o cliente e com uma qualidade mínima necessária. Em resumo o nosso objetivo é
que o cliente pegue o recurso e aplique naquilo que foi destinado e que a construção tenha um
mínimo de qualidade possível para que tenha durabilidade, com conforto na medida,
evidentemente relacionado ao valor do investimento, a gente não quer vai querer que uma casa
de 10 a 15 mil reais tenha um acabamento de uma casa melhor, mas eu posso garantir que dessas
duas mil casas que nós já construímos respectivamente o custo benefício é muito grande. Então,
a maioria das pessoas se surpreende que em tão pouco se faça tanto, e melhore tanto a condição
de vida das pessoas com essas casas.
[E.Z.] - Eu estou vendo uma tabela aqui e vejo que o público do minha casa minha vida seriam
famílias que recebam até 9 mil reais por mes, o seu público alvo são pessoas acima dessa faixa
ou pessoas que não podem acessar o minha casa minha vida por causa de burocracias ou
seleções demoradas?
[Expert 3] - Pelo próprio custo né, primeiro que o minha casa minha vida, é um processo
burocrático, a pessoa se inscreve e nem sempre é contemplada né, outra coisa, o custo de uma
casa do minha casa minha vida, não sei nas grandes capitais mas deve ser mais caro ainda, no
interior é acima de 100 mil reais, 80 mil reais, então comparado com o nosso de 10 a 20 é uma
diferença muito grande e além do mais tem um grande diferencial que a gente sempre procura
o que nosso cliente vai consumir geralmente uma moradia no local onde ele já reside, perto do
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trabalho dele perto das atividades dele e não é o caso de quando tem a minha casa minha vida
que são projetos habitacionais maiores geralmente mais distantes do local de trabalho e ele se
afasta daquele daquele local onde ele mora, do local onde ele tem os familiares, os amigos e às
vezes saúde próximo do seu trabalho, né? Então essa é uma outra característica importante é
que a gente faz com que a pessoa, se ele tiver um terreno ali perto, ou o pai tiver, enfim, que a
gente não precisa ser área exclusiva, então tem essa facilidade também, e às vezes é muito muito
melhor para o cliente optar por isso.
[E.Z.] - Então, quando vocês fazem esses microcréditos, vocês tem subsídios do Estado para
ajudar a financiar?
[Expert 3] - Nada, nem um tostão a gente tem uma tentativa de um projeto no município de
Lages, um projeto piloto que a gente propôs para o municípios o seguinte, nós faríamos um
programa que aqui em lages seriam 400 casas em que o cliente pagaria o financiamento e o
município pagaria o juro, pagaria os encargos. Esse contrato existe, está em andamento mas ele
não teve o sucesso que nós imaginamos. Nós imaginamos que essas 400 casas iriam ser
rapidamente requeridas pelos cliente, mas tem dificuldade, porque muitas vezes o município
indica o cliente mas o cliente não tem a condição necessária porque a condição necessária para
o banco é que o cliente tenha, embora seja uma prestação bastante razoável, que ele tenha
condições de pagá-la. Porque nós entendemos que o banco ele concede o crédito, mas ele tem
que receber. Aí a gente faz uma análise de crédito muito cuidadosa e, então isso tem demorado,
essas indicações com o município e esse esse programa ser mais rápido, né? Eu não posso dizer
nesse momento quantas unidades nós temos aqui no município, mas tem aí umas 20… 30 não
tenho o número exato daí esse é um programa que a gente tá rodando com o piloto e o município
fez com que a cada 8 prestações o município pague 1 desde que ele esteja adimplente e paga 1
que são os encargos então é um programa interessante porque resolve muitas vezes o que o
município precisa adotar para a sua população de melhoria da habitação e o que a gente
propagou isso com o município é dizer: não, o município desta forma ao invés de só gastar no
meio, porque geralmente os municípios têm secretaria de habitação e uma série de coisas, e a
moradia efetivamente eles não fazem, então só fazem projetos não gastam no meio e gastam no
fim que é a moradia, e esse era um programa para efetivamente o município contribuir com a
finalidade que é a moradia, mas ele está mais lento do que a gente imaginava, mas de qualquer
forma é o primeiro projeto piloto que nós estamos fazendo, tem outros municípios interessados
e a gente está procurando, a medida do possível, atender todos os municípios interessados.
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[E.Z.] - Vocês são uma instituição que visa o lucro, ou são uma organização social que não
visam o lucro com suas atividades?
[Expert 3] - Como eu disse, a nossa missão é a melhoria da qualidade de vida das pessoas, a
nossa Associação é composta por empresários que doaram recursos e hoje, nós somos uma
organização social de interesse público no caso, uma OSCIP. O banco ele não tem interesse em
lucro, mas ele tem interesse em superávit. Nós não podemos distribuir porque nós não somos
donos, nós somos associados, então, todo recurso do superávit do banco, ele é investido no
próprio banco e é por isso que nós começamos com um capital de r$ 200000 que r$ 120000
foram doações de nós empresários isso há mais de 20 anos atrás, né? E hoje, nós fechamos o
ano passado ou se quiser dados mais atuais nos fechamos agora nosso balancete com um
patrimônio líquido no valor de 65 milhões de reais. Então é este recurso que nos propicia
conseguir financiar a longo prazo. A nossa alavancagem é baixa, em torno de 60% então a
maioria do nosso do nosso financiamento são feitos com recursos próprios e esses recursos
próprios eles são gerados pelo superávit. Hoje nós temos em torno de 150 colaboradores e de
todos os financiamentos mais de 20 mil clientes em torno de 22 mil clientes, como eu disse,
mais de 2000 moradias financiadas e todos os demais projetos eles são financiados como esse.
(...) Todos esses financiamentos, com uma carteira que está se aproximando de 100 milhões de
reais, e, grande parte desses financiamentos é feito com recursos próprios e como nosso capital
próprio está em torno de 65 milhões, então a maioria dos nossos financiamentos é feito com
recursos próprios e esse recurso próprio ele provém dos superávits durante esses 20 anos, há
mais 20 anos no banco.
[E.Z.] - Eu tenho uma pergunta sobre o lado jurídico, essas linhas de microcrédito não fazem
parte do programa orientado de microcrédito PNMO?
[Expert 3] - Parte da nossa carteira, a gente faz esses microcréditos orientados mais pro lado do
empreendedorismo, pro lado empresarial, de negócios, e tem uma distinção entre microcrédito
e microfinanças, o microcrédito seria o crédito pro empreendedor, as microfinanças seria os
financiamentos de moradia, saneamento, saúde de todos os demais produtos que nós temos.
[E.Z.] – [...]
[Expert 3] - A gente não consegue, vamos dizer assim recursos do BNDES ou bancos de
desenvolvimento para financiar moradias justamente porque ele não se enquadra microcrédito,
mas eu concordo contigo, por isso a gente usa recurso próprio para este tipo de financiamento,
e, dessa forma é que por isso que eu digo que é tão importante que o banco é capitalizado, tem
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um patrimônio, tem dinheiro próprio, daí é possível ele fazer esse tipo de empréstimo, caso
contrário os recursos que temos hoje a gente tem curso do bnp paribas, temos recurso do
BNDES, recursos do bavesp, enfim, recursos de algumas instituições internacionais, e, esses
recursos eles são direcionados diretamente ao microcrédito efetivamente
[E.Z.] - Então não é que seja proibido, é só que você não pode obter ajuda do governo de
organizações públicas para ajudar a financiar.
[Expert 3]- Sim, ajuda a gente não tem mesmo, financiamentos, créditos a uma taxa de juros
melhor se não for pra microcrédito, então temos que buscar isso nas instituições internacionais,
eles já não tem problema, a gente chama de recurso livre, a gente pode aplicar sendo finança,
não tem problema na habitação, com essas entidades internacionais, agora o dinheiro do
BNDES, do BNP Paribas e de um outro banco que faz parte daqueles 2% que eles tem que
aplicar em microcrédito esse efetivamente nós temos que aplicar em microcrédito não dá pra
ser, na microfinanças efetivamente
[E.Z.] - Então você acha que é por isso que os bancos não propõem essa linha de microcrédito
para saneamento, reformas, casas, porque é muito difícil achar
[Expert 3]- Essa é uma das razões Elena, eles não dispõem de capital para financiar isso, né?
Justamente que eles não conseguem tem créditos nos agentes que vos financiam, né? E esse é
um dos diferenciais do banco da família, porque nós temos nós temos capital próprio e grande
parte do capital próprio para poder fazer isso e como nós optamos isso lá atrás na então todo
nosso capital próprio nós diversificamos é isso é um dos diferenciais do banco da família.
[E.Z.] - E você acha que talvez no futuro isso vai mudar? Que o governo vai criar um quadro
jurídico que apoia esse tipo de linha de crédito?
[Expert 3] - As coisas já têm andado pra esse lado, ele já foi mais restrito esse crédito, hoje a
gente tem algumas instituições que nos financiam, que já abriram um pouco leque, já autorizam,
por exemplo como você falou desde que a reforma seja para o local onde o nosso cliente
trabalha, né? Então ele já tem uma flexibilização maior. [...] Tem tido uma evolução nos últimos
tempos, as instituições estão mais flexíveis e nos cada vez mais estamos tentando persuadi-los
da importância da flexibilização das microfinanças porque na realidade o que nós queremos é
a melhoria de condições de vida das pessoas e as pessoas de baixa renda, eles têm eu sempre
digo o mesmo bolso, tanto faz pra eles investirem na moradia no seu negócio, o dinheiro sai do
mesmo bolso. Então se você só financia o negócio deles, às vezes ele não precisa desse dinheiro
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pro negócio, ele precisa para moradia, daí ele vai tirar o dinheiro do negócio dele para por na
moradia. E no fim ele não consegue nem fazer moradia e nem ir bem no seu negócio. Então o
que a gente precisa fazer é dar o crédito para aquelas pessoas, para aqueles que efetivamente
necessitam, então é essa é a nossa maneira de enxergar do banco da família, nós queremos
ajudar o nosso cliente naquilo que ele necessita e para que ele necessita e dar o crédito na
medida do que ele precisa na do termos de custos em termos de prazos porque você não o
negócio às vezes você pode dar um um financiamento, mas a curto prazo agora uma moradia,
tem que ser mais a longo prazo, ele não pode pagar uma moradia em um ano dois anos e três
anos tem que ser quatro cinco seis anos no mínimo.
[E.Z.] - Mesmo que isso evoluiu nessa direção nos últimos anos, você acha que o governar
guardar a mão sobre a questão da moradia no programa minha casa minha vida, porque, o que
não entendo nisso é que com o programa minha casa minha vida eles tem que subsidiar muito
as casas, depende da faixa mas tem subsidiários muito grandes e que se eles deixaram a
iniciativa privada se desenvolver seria um custo menor pelo estado sobre a questão da moradia
e que ainda a iniciativa privada poderia responder a demanda e que seria uma coisa menos ao
estado de tomar cuidado. Então eu nao entendo bem por que o estado não faz um quadro jurídico
que ajuda os bancos, os bancos públicos a desenvolver essas linhas de microcrédito, porque na
minha opinião seria uma coisa positiva pro estado para isso se desenvolver com menos custo
pelo estado.
[Expert 3] - Concordo plenamente contigo Elena, e o Banco da Família é um exemplo disso, já
financiamos mais de 2000 casas, num custo extremamente mais baixo o cliente paga nós muito
direito, com menos de 2% de inadimplência, então é um programa de sucesso, com muito menos
custo e nós efetivamente do jeito que nós estamos fazendo hoje a não ser este programa da
Prefeitura de Lages que ainda está bem no início, mas todos os demais não tem um custo, zero,
nada para o estado, nenhum subsídio nada nada nada nada, então outra outra grande diferença,
nós trabalhamos só com madeira e a madeira é muito regionalizada então há na região que se
vende a casa, você consome produto da região, o recurso fica praticamente todo na região.
Então é mais você vê centraliza a distribuição do recurso isso ajuda a própria renda daquela
região então o cliente que tá comprando ele tá injetando dinheiro na sua própria região.
[E.Z.] - Então você acha que faz parte da história do Brasil de ser um pouco conservador sobre
crédito e desejar controlar muito tudo que é relacionado ao crédito ou talvez também se eu não
estou errada, o Brasil especificamente gosta de guardar no público coisas que podem ser
passado ao privado tipo que aqui muitas coisas são controladas pelo Estado, muitas coisas não
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são privadas, algumas empresas que poderiam ser privadas mas são públicas, que isso faz parte
da cultura brasileira que isso vai demorar para se flexibilizar, em comparação a outros países
porque vi que outros países como México, Peru onde isso e muito mais desenvolvido e muito
mais apoiado pelo governo.
[Expert 3] - É, eu acho que tem um pouco disso, um pouco da cultura, nós temos outros
problemas na habitação do Brasil, né? Nós temos uma cultura que foi muito mais para o lado
do concreto mas aos poucos a própria construção em madeira também está voltando ela que ela
é uma construção mais barata e o recurso fica menos concentrado, né? Então tem uma série de
evoluções, mas essa questão central de o governo apoiar as boas iniciativas privadas para
resolver um problema que hoje é problema público, o déficit habitacional nacional no Brasil é
um problema público e eu acho que o governo seria muito inteligente se ele fizesse política
pública em que ele efetivamente apoiar-se em vez dele ter que investir, gastaria muito menos,
concordo contigo, gastaria muito menos para poder público atingir rapidamente muito mais as
pessoas necessitadas, né? E a gente espera que esse pequeno movimento do banco da família
possa ir crescendo e ser um exemplo para que está aí no futuro, o governo consiga entender que
isso pode ser uma das soluções para melhoria das moradias no Brasil, melhoria desse déficit
habitacional.
[E.Z.] - Eu queria fazer uma estimativa de quantas pessoas no Brasil seriam potenciais clientes
nisso, então, eu achei uma tabela com a porcentagem das pessoas e sua faixa de renda, eu queria
saber se você sabe quais faixas de renda são o público-alvo, de qual até qual, mais ou menos,
eu tenho essa tabela e talvez isso seria mais fácil de entender.
[Expert 3] - A nossa faixa é até 2 salários, de meio até 1 e de 1 até 2, esse é nosso público e
vamos dizer assim que com as parcerias, e os governos municipais e até estadual no futuro a
gente possa ter com eles algum subsídio, e a faixa sem renda talvez isso seria possível em uma
parceria com os governos, e eu concordo contigo, isso será muito menos custoso ao governo
ele fazer uma parceria dessa ai, e nós fazermos essas habilitações que são muito menos custosas,
né? E do que um programa feito pelo governo onde tem muitos atravessadores na história, né?
Isso faz com que o uso aumente muito né?
[E.Z.] – [...]
[Expert 3] - Não tenho dúvida que essa nossa maneira, esse time do projeto nosso aqui, que é
praticamente nada se você pensar em Brasil, mas se você pensar na nossa região ele já é alguma
coisa, então se multiplica isso aí por todas as OSCIPs do Brasil, enfim, outras entidades que se
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interessasse fosse uma maneira de contribuir bastante, para ajudar esse déficit, porque esse
déficit brasileiro que se fala em cinco milhões outros falam em 7 milhões de moradias a gente
não sabe exatamente quanto? Mas enfim, né? Eu acho que só o programa Minha Casa Minha
Vida não vai resolver concordo contigo além do que principalmente no interior eu vejo muito
importante essa maneira de você construir casas a onde as pessoas namoram, né? Para não tirar
eles estão perto do trabalho. Penso às vezes gera um outro problema, gera conflitos, em grandes
condomínios, as pessoas não estão acostumada isso gera problema de convivência gera
problema nos grandes centros gera problemas de mobilidade urbana, gera problema de
saneamento é uma série de coisas que quando você consegue fazer com que a pessoa permaneça
perto da onde ele está isso minimiza os problemas futuros, às vezes até para onde escola. Enfim
a experiência nossa nos mostra que é muito importante a fixação da pessoa já onde ele está.
[E.Z.] - Vocês conhecem outros bancos que propõem microcréditos habitacionais?
[Expert 3] - Não a gente já discutiu, a gente tem a nossa associação no banco da família, sempre
ficou como protagonista nisso,e, é difícil uma outra instituição, porque o risco é grande todos
têm medo de risco. [...] Eu digo que, a gente torce para que todos sigam o banco da família,
alguns estão iniciando com algum crédito para o para a reforma inicial e eu sei que o desafio é
grande porque o funding é muito difícil, né? O banco tem que se capitalizar antes para fazer
isso e não há recurso, né, Para Isso então isso faz com que que a grande maioria das instituições
não aceitem esse desafio, né? Mas algumas delas como eu disse estão iniciando aí no
financiamento das reformas, e, a gente espera que a moradia seja um passo adiante que eles
terão também como nós tivemos.
Appendix 11: Interview with Expert 4 (Caixa Economica Federal; interview in Portuguese)
[Expert 4] - Só para um alinhamento de conceitos, o microcrédito, ele, o conceito fora do Brasil,
ele é diferente do conceito da legislação brasileira, dificilmente você vai encontrar entre os
países, de diversas economias, ou estágios econômicos, conceitos legais, cultura e momento
econômico iguais, para que você tenha um conceito único, só pra tentar te direcionar. Quando
nós falamos de microcrédito no Brasil ele é, e é o que você comentou, a sigla MPO é o
microcrédito produtivo ele é atrelado a atividade da pessoa que adquire que aqui no Brasil nós
chamamos de empreendedor então a pessoa que executa alguma atividade produtiva do tipo, eu
sou um pintor, eu sou um pequeno chefe de cozinha, um comerciante de rua, isso é o nome no
Brasil de empreendedor ele tem um crédito comercial, o que que é um crédito comercial é
aquele que a taxa dele é mensal, as parcelas são mensais e se assemelha muito com o que no
mercado exterior é chamado de crédito para consumo do tipo, quero comprar um carro, quero
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comprar uma roupa, mas aqui o tipo de atividade define se aquele crédito é produtivo orientado,
é uma elegibilidade do público, daquela pessoa,então o conceito de microcrédito no Brasil, por
isso que você não encontrou nada relacionado a microcrédito habitacional,que seria um
pequeno crédito para uma pequena reforma em condições similares de habitação, que
normalmente envolve um longo prazo de pagamento ou de amortização atrelado a uma garantia
real, normalmente aquele imovel que com uma baixa taxa de juros, com pequena variação da
taxa de juros, é o que nós chamamos de taxa de juros anuais, não mensais como é o comum
comercial, no Brasil nos nao temos essa modalidade, implementada em legislação, contudo ela
não restringe que possa ocorrer, o fato é, o mercado se auto regula de uma forma que um
pequeno crédito que vai permitir a ele fazer uma pequena reforma no seu banheiro, por exemplo,
e que isso se assemelha a um Microcrédito Habitacional que não é a construção inteira da casa
mais uma melhoria e algum pedaço dele, hoje é atendido em linhas comerciais como o
microcrédito produtivo orientado ou empréstimo consumo ou até mesmo o empréstimo de
reforma de residência, então aqui nós estamos implementando junto ao nosso órgão regulador
que é o banco central brasileiro o BACEN, o conceito de microfinanças, que eu estou além do
microcrédito ai eu teria diversas soluções financeiras e modalidades de empréstimos e
financiamentos para aquele público específico, no caso o público empreendedor com renda
informal, que é o que você trouxe, com renda ou até mesmo sem renda, que ele tem uma
atividade produtiva, que acontece no Brasil, as pessoas não conseguem que aquela atividade
produtiva lhe produza renda além da subsistência, a gente tem esse cenário.
Um programa parecido com o que seria um microcrédito habitacional, mas não é um
microcrédito habitacional em lei é o minha casa minha vida rural, que se chama PNHR,
Programa Nacional de Habitação Rural, se você puxar essa sigla dentro dos programas você irá
encontrar, que é um empréstimo de alguns salários mínimos do tipo, 20 salários, onde a
construção da residência é fora da cidade são em comunidades ribeirinhas, assentamentos
quilombolas, e ele é feito em forma de mutirão, ou seja, é feito um crédito para aquela
comunidade construir a casa do João, depois é feito um outro crédito para construir a casa da
Maria, então esse é um que se assemelha a um microcrédito habitacional, mas não é em termos
de legislação, esse hoje não existe aqui no Brasil. Esse Programa Nacional de Habitação Rural
PNHR ele é comercializado ou distribuído as pessoas através de bancos públicos. Caixa
Econômica, Banco do Brasil, Banco do Nordeste, Banco da Amazônia, são vários bancos que
tem isso. (...) É um programa de mutirão, ele pressupõe que aquela comunidade se una, e, a
força de trabalho, que muitas vezes é um dos custos mais elevados da construção, é feita pela
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comunidade, então, a comunidade é que tem um pedreiro que irá fazer todas as casas, um pintor
que irá pintar todas as casas, ou eles vão fazer isso em conjunto, é um multirão, é como se todo
mundo construísse a casa de todos. E o valor dele, é bem abaixo do valor de um habitacional
comum, que as casas giram em torno de algumas dezenas de salários mínimos se fosse para
comparar, essa ai ela é um valor bem menor, uma comparação de mercado ela chega a ser 5
vezes menor do que a primeira etapa do minha casa minha vida pra você ter uma ideia. E o
pagamento dele é totalmente subsidiado, simbolicamente a pessoa paga cerca de 50 reais, hoje
seria ai 8 euros por mês, que a pessoa iria pagar para ter acesso ao programa. Então quando a
gente vem no Brasil falar de microcrédito o MPO ele é um crédito comercial, tanto que a lei do
MPO, a legislação, caso você tenha consultado no Brasil, é a 13636 essa é a lei do crédito
produtivo orientado.
[E.Z.] - E esse crédito de habitação rural é também distribuído por bancos privados ou só bancos
públicos?
[Expert 4] - Eu desconheço algum banco privado que o distribua.
[E.Z.] - Você falou que isso é prescrito em lei, então um banco privado não teria o direito de
abrir, de oferecer microcréditos habitacionais, porque eu dei uma olhada na lei do microcrédito
empreendedor e me parece bem restrita, porque, do que eu entendi na lei, não é possível, mas,
nas minhas pesquisas eu vi que tem algumas instituições que fazem isso, que fazem
microcréditos habitacionais, mas muito pouco, e na lei parece proibido.
[Expert 4] - Esses que você identificou perante a lei não é microcrédito, é um pequeno crédito
para habitação, ele não é enquadrado como microcrédito, entendeu? Porque a classificação das
linhas de crédito no Brasil segue uma codificação do Banco Central que é o banco regulador e
essa linha lá que você deve ter visto, na comunidade do Rio, que ele financia pra ele cimento,
telhas, pequenas reformas, e divide em várias prestações, não é encarado como microcrédito
para a lei, ele é encarado com uma operação de crédito comum, essa é uma diferença, essa
modalidade que você viu também, que é comum em algumas ongs, alguns institutos que fazem
isso, eles fazem isso fora do sistema financeiro, eles fazem uma relação instituição cliente, não
passa pelo órgão regulador, então não tem tributação, não se paga impostos sobre ela ela segue
uma modelagem de risco como ocorre nas operações comuns e talvez essas duas
particularidades torna ela com maior acesso do que com uma operação comercial. Porque para
quem toma o crédito, parece sempre uma operação de crédito, mas, sistemicamente, legalmente,
ela não é. Por exemplo, a modelagem de crédito prevista na regulamentação, ela me exige uma
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serie de informações do cliente, pra evitar lavagem de dinheiro, financiamento ao terrorismo,
tudo isso esta dentro da prevenção de lavagem de dinheiro e financiamento ao terrorismo, nessa
modelagem que voce viu, ela é uma modelagem própria, então, a instituição que esta fazendo
o crédito define como ela quer fazer, ela pode chegar e falar, vou fazer para todos que estão
nessa rua, é um direito dela, não é uma operação de crédito, então ela consegue acessar muitas
vezes clientes que não são acessados pelos bancos, porque o modelo e o apetite financeiro ele
é baixo para o publico empreendedor, porque ele tem dificuldade de apresentar uma garantia.
[E.Z.] - E, o que você acha de microcréditos habitacionais, de seu potencial, feito pela iniciativa
privada, no sentido que não teria subsídios e que seriam completamente independentes,
autônomos do governo, você acha que é uma coisa positiva ou não, o que poderia se desenvolver
ou não, no contexto do Brasil?
[Expert 4] - No caso do Brasil, deixa eu ver se eu entendi a pergunta, como eu fomento que a
iniciativa privada trabalhe com microcrédito habitacional, é isso a pergunta?
[E.Z.] – […]
[Expert 4] - No Brasil, nós temos algumas peculiaridades, quando eu falo de políticas sociais,
as do Brasil elas se confundem com as políticas econômicas e sociais, então muitas vezes, onde
o estado consegue chegar, ele tem condições de atender aquela comunidade com a solução o
que acontece no Brasil é que tem várias situações que o Estado não consegue ser presente, um
exemplo, um morro, uma favela, uma periferia de uma grande cidade, e ali o Estado não é
presente então como não é presente as políticas públicas não chegam até lá, para o mercado
privado, e lembra que nós temos uma economia extremamente agressiva e capitalista no
mercado financeiro, o mercado privado faz a seguinte escolha não é economicamente viável eu
ir atrás desse cliente para implementar uma política pública,isso é o pedido, então eles não
fazem, nos temos toda essa dificuldade em relação a toda essas linhas governamentais, sem
exceção, elas não são linhas economicamente viáveis para os representantes comercializarem,
na maioria dos outros países, a representação desses processos como é o caso que você trouxe
do México ela ocorre através de instituições criadas exclusivamente para essa distribuição,
quando eu crio uma instituição exclusivamente para essa distribuição, como é inviável a
comercialização, eu tenho que colocar o que? Ela passa a ser subsidiada por uma outra
instituição, então por exemplo, o governo vai bancar o banco X para poder fazer isso, o que não
ocorre no Brasil, e ai no Brasil o que que ocorre então, as instituições brasileiras elas são auto
independentes, elas não são subsidiadas economicamente pelo governo, então quando eu vou
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comercializar um produto, eu comercializo ele considerando a rentabilidade que ele vai me
trazer, eu não vou vender algo que me de prejuízo, o mercado privado ele nao acha aderente
esse tipo de trabalho, porque ele prefere ter rentabilidade em outras modalidades a exemplo o
mercado de cartão de crédito, é muito melhor um cartão de crédito com uma pessoa de baixa
renda, que ela via ter acesso ao crédito, que é muito mais caro, mas é muito mais simples do
que eu chegar e fazer uma operação de microcrédito seja habitacional ou não, nos outros países,
boa parte dessa iniciativa privada não são bancos, elas instituições, associações que fazem
aquilo por ser a função delas, por exemplo ONGS, instituições sem fins lucrativos, e esse é um
desafio que nós temos no Brasil, de como colocar um produto que comercialmente ele dá
prejuízo mas socialmente tem um impacto gigante, dentro de uma instituição que não pode dar
prejuízo.
Appendix 12: Interview with Expert 5 (World Bank; interview in English)
[E.Z.] -
[Expert 5] – [….] Brazil has a kind of an inefficient housing system. The federal government
takes about 6% of the worker salaries for housing and urban development, that’s a huge amount
of money and they basically undermine the development of the private market, in every way
possible. Housing finance including housing microfinance would have to compete with this
system, which is they inject huge amount of money at housing. The statistics are not fully
reliable, with some projects double-counted. […] Housing microfinance in the way it exists in
Peru or Guatemala or other places, it does not exist in Brazil because the government is so busy
injecting money in a inefficient ways on housing, which makes housing microfinance extremely
difficult to develop. Another thing that happens in an enormous scale in Brazil, all the Brazilian
banks gives loans through hardware stores, through credits to buy materials and charge
astronomic interest rates like 50%. When you ask the banks, they will probably say to you that’s
an interesting idea but it isn’t profitable for them. Brazil has the highest real interest rate
virtually of any country in the world; Bankers have no interests doing anything constructive in
this area. At the same time, the government injects huge amount of money in housing, they
collect the money through the FGTS and channel it through innumerable ways, including all
these housing agencies. What is the exact focus of your thesis:
[E.Z.] – […] I talk about the experiences of Latin American countries in housing microfinance
and general housing financing contexts. […]
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[Expert 5] – The best example of housing microfinance in Latin America is in Peru. Peru has a
very valuable country-wide housing microfinance, through the largest bank of the country (look
for the name), that’s a perfect example. Guatemala, Mexico and Salvador have some examples
too. I used to oversee a project in the World Bank on Mexico, with INFONAVITS, the biggest
housing lender in the world. It started out the same way the FGTS did. Someone in about the
1960s went around Latin America with the idea that the best way to create a housing financing
system, was to take funds, to join it with a social security system because long-term liabilities
(social security) should finance long-term real assets (mortgages), that was a brilliant idea. […]
They channel money the same way FGTS did. Every Latin American country created something
like FGTS but in the 70s and 80s the World Bank and IDB said it’s inefficient, eliminate them,
so most countries stopped but Brazil decided to keep the FGTS. It’s a huge amount of money,
so many people are on the table, it is a get-rich scheme for the developers and just enrich the
middle-income who enjoy the most the subsidies. In Mexico, the system is much more serious.
I suggest you read the paper I did for Proparco. Proparco did a whole issue on private sector
housing finance in emerging countries, and how that was becoming increasingly important.
They hired me to talk about Latin America and I profiled the Mexican experience, which is also
full of disaster but overall, more serious than the Brazilian experience. It has been published in
July 2014. I made some generalizations about housing finance in emerging countries. […] The
key housing financing in much of the world is not financing housing but finding a piece of
urban land. Latin America is a relatively fortunate because it has a history of country invasion
and large regularization. In Africa, land is tribal, it is very difficult to give legal title toa parcel
in this area. […] The way I got interested in housing microfinance I was working for the IDB
and creating programs that I ended up realizing just transfer money to the middle-class people,
transfer 6,000-7,000-8,000 thousands to middle-income people, with a downpayment and low-
interest rate, these programs were called direct subsidy programs. I designed about 5 of this
type of programs. […] The mortgage finance people knew the truth which is that mortgage is
very poorly adapted to most people in emerging countries because banks like long-term
liabilities. Most emerging countries don’t have long-term liabilities, don’t always have a
pension system. They tried to create it through institutions like FGTS or INFONAVITS. Most
countries deleted agencies like FGTS under the recommendation of the World Bank or IDB
except countries hopelessly corrupt like Brazil or countries with a better idea like Mexico.
Mexico kept INFONAVITS because they tried to make it more serious, and make it work. In
about 2000, Mexico started funding lots of units. There are 6 large developers in Mexico that
are basically rich and funded mostly by the subsidies of INFONAVITS. They absorb most
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subsidies and pass on some them to lower-middle class people. Most of these places are now
swamps or dominated by drugdealers. They found out that that doesn’t work and started housing
microfinance at the level of INFONAVITS which is interesting. INFONAVITS collects I think
3% of the worker salaries. […] Ashoka went to Natal and started a small housing microfinance
scheme, on a small scale, but it is impossible to make it work at a larger scale because the
government doesn’t support this kind of projects. The model that applies to Brazil is, “too big
to ignore but too messy to fix”. The interests are making the rich people richer, and Brazil
prefers to operate in this personalistic corrupt system, but it is still a very big and attractive
country so hard to ignore. The real beneficiaries of the housing finance system in Brazil are the
middle-class that get highly subsidized mortgages from the Caixa Economica to buy apartments
and houses. Brazil has a very interesting case of housing finance for low-income people:
consorcio. 20 to 30 low-income families join funds.
[E.Z.] – I know this system […]
[Expert 5] - That is a genuine example of housing microfinance where you don’t have access
to subsidize and want to avoid the astronomical interest rates of banks. The consorcio are the
most positive things about urban development in Brazil […] Housing microfinance won’t
develop unless the country changes fundamentally, which is not likely to happen in the near
future. […] Let’s face it, “Brasil é um país do futuro e sempre será”. I would suggest FGTS and
the Caixa Economica to copy INFONAVITS. Brazil won’t suppress FGTS but ultimately, they
will have to modify it. Also, they should expand consorcio system, which is the best market-
driven initiative.
Appendix 13: Interview with Expert 6 (Habitat for Humanity Brazil; interview in Portuguese)
[...]
[E.Z.] – Queria saber, porque da sua opinião microfinanças habitacionais quase não existem o
Brasil pelo momento? Quais são os fatores que impedem o desenvolvimento desse tipo de
microfinanças no Brasil?
[Expert 6] – Então, para a gente falar da questão de microfinanças habitacional, a gente antes
tem que falar de microfinanças. Se a gente compara o Brasil com outros países da América do
Sul, a microfinança é muito menos desenvolvido que em outros países como a Bolívia, o Peru
os outros países que têm características sob alguns aspetos até semelhantes que o Brasil, mas o
Brasil teria a condição de ter isso muito mais desenvolvido. E aqui é opinião minha, porque que
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eu acho que isso não se desenvolve, o não se desenvolve tanto quanto poderia. Primeiro porque
o sistema financeiro brasileiro é muito concentrado em grandes bancos e o próprio recurso que
vai para o microcrédito, e aí eu estou falando de microcrédito produtivo orientado, o tipo de
microcrédito que vai para o empreendedor no geral. Ele é derivado de uma parcela de crédito
que os bancos tem que dar e que os bancos tem que dar e que são obrigados a oferecer, mas não
é um negócio muito rentável pro banco, então é quase um cumprimento de tabela de oferecer
esse tipo de microcrédito mesmo para empreendedor. Você tem algumas organizações tanto
públicas, quanto Banco do Nordeste, no Sul do Brasil, você tem várias organizações privadas
que dão microcréditos, mas ainda assim é difícil não ter o estímulo grande como poderia ter
principalmente do lado governamental. Agora, trazendo isso sobre microcréditos voltados para
habitação. Vou falar do meu universo que é mais reformas. O que que acontece, normalmente,
o ticket de microcrédito habitacional são valores mais altas que para microcréditos tradicionais,
que são pagos mais rapidamente e o empreendedor pode pedir um outro microcrédito na
sequência. As famílias que mais necessitam não têm imóveis regularizado para fornecer como
garantia. É diferente de outro microcrédito como crédito para automóvel, o automóvel só vai
passar no nome dela quando acaba de pagar, se não paga, a financeira tomo o bem de volta.
Quando a família compra papel de parede, vai tirar da parede? Quando você fala de reformas,
não da. O negócio de oferecer crédito para pessoas de baixa renda acaba não sendo atrativo. O
outro fator que é importante nessa conversa, é que se usa as mesmas métricas, os mesmos
sistemas e as mesmas ferramentas que se usa para oferecer um crédito no banco, se tenta usar
nesse mesmo formato quando é uma família de baixa renda, aí não passa. Precisam ser
envolvidas outras metodologias outras ferramentas, a gente tem que trabalhar bastante nisso no
sentindo de você fazer uma análise mais voltada para aquele público, entendeu? Então é mais
ou menos fazendo um paralelo. Antigamente, aqui no Brasil tem uma rede de lojas muito grande
que se chama Casas Bahia. Se você devesse em outros lugares, mas nas Casas Bahia, se você
pagasse, tivesse um histórico positivo, ele continuava a vender para você, ele teve confiança,
isso criava um vínculo. Então se ele tivesse de deixar que pagar uma outra conta, ele deixaria
que pagar a conta de luz, mas não deixava de pagar Casa Bahia para não perder aquele crédito
que ele teve lá. Eu acho que é isso, eu acho que é assim, não existe um estímulo de ponto de
vista público, de ponto de visto do sistema que está implantado e por outro lado esse público é
muito específico, tem características muito específicas. Então baixa precisa de um ticket a alto
e não tem garantia. Então o que a gente tem feito uma série de parceiros aí é tentar experimentar,
e aí fica muito deu um componente nesse microcrédito que é por isso que eu que dificulta ele
ser feito um grande escala para o tamanho do problema, que é uma relação muito de confiança
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entre quem oferece o crédito e quem recebe o dinheiro, quem toma o crédito. Nós temos casos,
por exemplo Elena, de família não poder pagar, e aí ela liga para gente falar “nesse mês meu
filho está doente, preciso comprar remédio para ele e não tenho como pagar, posso atrasar um
mês?” que é um procedimento que se fez por que as pessoas se conhecem, pelo relacionamento.
Num banco, isso não vai acontecer nunca. Então as ferramentas de crédito para esse crédito, as
formas de trabalhar, tudo tem que ser restabelecido. Não pode partir de uma estrutura de crédito
que já existe e tentar só adaptar como se fosse mais um público tradicional e é por isso que a
gente não avança tá?
[E.Z.] – [...] Uma das pessoas entrevistas me falou que uma das razões que impedem o
desenvolvimento de microfinanças habitacionais é a corrupção no pais, no sentido que
programas publicas como Minha Casa Minha Vida canaliza muito dinheiro e que pode server
interesse de políticos e que por isso, tem pouca impulsão de governo para microfinanças
habitacionais. A pessoa que me falou isso é da fora, queria ter a opinião de um brasileiro sobre
esse assunto de corrupção. O que você acha disso?
[Expert 6] - Eu discordo um pouco em partes, e vou te explicar por que. O MCMV são
construção de casa completas, é hoje o déficit habitacional de construções no Brasil, de casa
completas, é de 7 milhões de unidades. Então, eu concordo com ele e tem um interesse muito
grande em se fazer esse tipo de projeto com o dinheiro do governo e mas não pode esquecer
que projetos como esse, como Minha Casa Minha Vida, eles não foram desenvolvidos para
resolver o déficit habitacional somente, eles tem como prioridade movimentar economia,
movimentar empresas a criar emprego. A cadeia da construção civil é uma cadeia de valor que
envolve muita gente, muitas empresas, então o objetivo é movimentar economia. Então sobre
esse aspecto concordo com ele de que existem interesses em querer manter um projeto como
esse e não estou falando nem corrupção. A corrupção é um uma variável a mais que pode
aparecer aí, mas estou falando tem interesse genuíno de empresas produzirem, contratarem mais
gente, ganhar mais dinheiro. Então eu concordo até esse ponto. Porém, existe o déficit das
moradias que são inadequadas que é no mínimo 11 milhões de casos. E esse é o mercado que
não interesse para essas construtoras que cobre minha casa, minha vida. Não vão fazer uma
reforma numa casinha de às vezes 20-30 metros quadrado dentro de uma favela. Esse é o
mercado para o microcrédito. Então, esses dois mercados não competem diretamente. Se
poderia dar microcrédito em quantidades grande se tivesse um jeito de fazer, porque o público
é outro, quem vai tomar não é a mesma pessoa que compra o apartamento, porque ela já tem
uma casa tem uma coisa. Por exemplo, a gente faz muita pesquisa, escuta com os moradores.
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Por exemplo, quem mora numa favela e que já esteja urbanizada, por exemplo como Héliopolis,
onde a gente trabalha aqui em São Paulo. Não quer sair de lá, quer viver melhor lá, porque ela
já tem toda uma rede social construída ali, de escola o posto de saúde, a pessoa que toma conta
do filho quando ela está trabalhando e o filho volta da escola. Então, e normalmente esses
conjuntos Minha Casa Minha Vida são feitas em terrenos longe, às vezes com lugares distantes
do centro, do trabalho. Então, não são necessariamente concorrentes. Poderia ter ao mesmo
tempo sim uma política tanto de microcrédito, quanto aí sim, um outro ponto que não existe
agora tem uma tentativa aí, mas de ter subsídios para reforma, subsídios para melhoria
Habitacional. Até bem pouco tempo, não tinha nada. O governo esse ano anunciou o Casa verde
amarela, eu não sei se você ouviu falar. Mas o Casa Verde Amarelo, ainda está papel, né? Então,
a gente não sabe como que vai ser, se isso vai sair. Mas então, teria possibilidade de ter as duas
coisas ao mesmo tempo, então o gargalo para mim, não é o interesse das construtoras. Mas o
gargalo é ter uma forma que garante que quem dá o crédito vai conseguir receber dinheiro de
volta, porque se ele não tivesse essa segurança, ele não dá o crédito.
E.Z.- [...] Você acha que no futuro, os microcréditos habitacionais vão se desenvolver no Brasil?
Você acha que a pressão fiscal pode incentivar o governo de impulsionar esse tipo de programa?
[Expert 6] - Eu acho que o momento atual, é muito complicado por causa da conjuntura mesmo
econômica que nos estamos vivendo, tem a pandemia. Em termo de déficit fiscal, jà era grande
antes da pandemia. O governo federal não tem uma visão social para isso, para estimular esse
tipo de ação. Então, eu acho, o governo não tem interesse, os bancos também n’ao tem interesse
porque não pe um serviço altamente rentável para eles. Então eu acho, no curto prazo, estou
falando dos próximos 2-3 anos, não vejo um cenário nada diferente em relação a isso. Nós
estamos trabalhando com uma rede dentro do nosso alcance. Mas como eu falei para você, se a
gente pensar que tem 11 milhões de residências em mal estado que poderiam que uma parte
dela está buscando recursos, pegando microcrédito para melhorar a sua condição. O nosso braço
ainda é muito pequeno. A gente está formando uma rede de organizações, desenvolver uma
metodologia, desenvolver junto com os parceiros, claro não é seu habitat, uma ferramenta, um
algoritmo de microcrédito para pessoas de baixa renda. É muito diferente ser um agente de
crédito que mora na comunidade que conhece as pessoas do que um banco formal que fica lá
na avenida que tem uma porta de vidro giratória que até intimide as pessoas de entrarem, né?
O relacionamento é diferente, né? Estou comentando isso, porque você perguntou qual é a
expectativa, acho que não muda nada. E ao mesmo tempo a gente vai dando alguns passinhos
em relação aquilo que a gente já conhece, né? Quem faz muita coisa. Aí eu não sei qual é
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exatamente o foco da sua pesquisa. Mas você deveria falar com o Banco do Nordeste. Eu não
sei se você já falou com eles, porque eles são o maior eu acho que a maior instituição de
microcrédito do Brasil e a maior também para habitação, que é uma parcela muito pequena dos
microcréditos que eles dão. É o único player que trabalha nesse campo.
[E.Z.] – [...] Eu achei algumas instituições que trabalham nesse campo, geralmente instituições
pequenas, geralmente elas ficam mais no Sul do pais, não sei porque. Mas não vi uma linha
especial para habitação.
[Expert 6] - Eu também não sei por que acontece no Sul, mas é no Sul que é a maior quantidade
de instituições de microcrédito. Tem instituições como Banco da Familia em Santa Catarina, só
que eles dão microcréditos para habitações, mas eles não dão assistência técnica. Que é
assistência técnica? Qual é a solução? Qual é o projeto? Qual é o material? Qual é o que que
precisa realmente ser feito? Se não, o que acontece, supondo que você tivesse alguém que
ofereça crédito barato confiável acessível para o monte de gente, o que a gente vai estar fazendo
é replicando favela. Porque a pessoa vai, pega o crédito, mas ela não tem também uma mão de
obra especializada, ela não sabe direito o que ela vai fazer então ela também gasta mal esse
recurso, se ela não tiver um auxílio técnico, uma orientação técnica, para orientar o que que ela
vai fazer com esse dinheiro. Então eu acho que isso é um outro ponto quando a gente fala de
microcrédito tem todas as limitações, mas além disso tem supondo que a gente resolver essas
limitações, tem esse outro ponto que é da assistência técnica, da orientação técnica para
utilização do recurso. Mesmo se a família consegue juntar o dinheiro, fazendo uma obra, a casa
continua precária porque não teve olhar técnico, né então?
[...]