Latin American housing sales boom in 2020, despite pandemic

In Brazil, a new record was set in 2020 for residential sales in São Paulo, according to Paladin Realty Partners.

According to SECOVI (one of the principal sources of residential sales data in Brazil), 51,417 units were sold in Brazil’s largest city in 2020, setting an all-time record. This figure was 5 percent higher than the previous record of 49,244 units, set in 2019. Some of the purchasing may have been investors searching for hard assets amidst the economic uncertainty and record-low interest rates, but much of it speaks to the demand-driven opportunity that housing presents: Brazil is a country that requires an estimated 1.5 million new housing units per year, which is met with a supply that is estimated at less than 500,000 homes. Paladin Realty launched Praça Marajoara in September 2020, a lower-income development with an average price-point of $85,000, and 66 percent of its 204 units had been sold by year end. Paladin’s prior two launches in São Paulo, ARQ, a