Developers seek to recreate village houses

The social isolation imposed by the pandemic increased the demand for housing with large spaces and close to nature, but without leaving the large urban centers.

With an eye on this high-value niche, developers in São Paulo and Rio —the two most populous capitals in the country—invest in land to build condominium houses with a village feel.

The properties, however, differ from those built close to industries in the 1940s to 1960s. The new floor plans are customized to suit the lifestyle of each buyer.

In Rio de Janeiro, according to Nayara Técia, CEO of ON Brokers, high-income families are investing in these houses to have a better quality of life.

“I realized that many millionaires started to spend the money right away for fear of not living as long. It’s a trauma of the pandemic”, he says.

There are offers in different configurations. Some houses do not have a parking space, but have a hot tub on the terrace. Others have a swimming pool and soccer field in the garden.

“Still, the amount charged by the condominium is 30% lower on average, it doesn’t even compare to the rate of apartments, no matter how high standard the condominium of houses is”, says Técia.

D2J Construtora, which in recent years has invested in compact properties, has just approved the purchase of two plots of land for the construction of condominiums with 20 houses in Tijuca (north of Rio). Together, the projects total almost 10 thousand square meters.

“The sale will start at R$ 2.1 million. Houses in the heart of the condominium will have a higher value, as they are further away from the street”, says Daniel Afonso, director of the company.

He says he already has interested buyers, and some plan to leave their penthouses to live in a house.

The D2J condominiums will also not have a common area. Every leisure area will be inside each house. “There will only be concierge and security. This greatly reduces the value of the condominium”, says Afonso.

Even with a lower offer than in Rio, due to the lack of available land, São Paulo follows the trend, but without leaving aside its marks of urban architecture.

In the past, what characterized a village was that each housing unit had its own toilet, a place to rest, living room and kitchen.

In the middle of the 20th century, according to a study by the architect and urban planner Solange Moura Lima de Aragão, some houses started to have a dining room, an edicule in the backyard and care with the look of the facades.

According to architect Ricardo Trevisan, a doctor in urbanism from USP (University of São Paulo), it was only in 1994 that a law was drafted with a proposal for residential villas. Then came the semi-detached houses.

The legislation, says the architect, sought to respond to a great appreciation in the 1980s for this type of housing in the capital of São Paulo.

Four decades later, Cube Inc. chose to reinterpret the concept of village houses in the capital of São Paulo and already has 13 projects, some with 100% sold units.

“My idea was to make a product of high desire and very low supply, and I wanted to take land that no one wants for various reasons, such as zoning or the difficulty of expanding into a building,” says Cube founder Octávio Moreira.

The company’s transactions are all through barter. The owner of a well-located piece of land that is unable or unwilling to build makes an offer and, in exchange, receives some of the units.

The internal layout considers the resident’s life stage and can be changed at any time, as it is made of drywall.

Being part of that niche in a city with a vast built-up area comes at a price. To buy one of these houses, it is necessary to pay from R$ 700 thousand to more than R$ 2 million, according to the value of the square meter of the neighborhood.

“With the pandemic, everyone wanted to live at home again, to have that space to sunbathe. We don’t have space for a garden, but we have a rooftop, which is very successful”, says Moreira.

If the objective is to invest, the vice president of Rede Imóveis, Paulo Celles, says that the lease must recover around 0.5% of the investment to be a good deal.

“There are no traps. What is needed is a good reading of the real estate market”, says Celles.

A report released by Abrainc (Brazilian Association of Real Estate Developers) on June 14 points out that, even with the rise in the Selic (basic interest rate), real estate sales in the country continue to grow.

For the president of Abrainc, Luiz França, the projects increasingly attract buyers and investors who seek to protect their assets from inflation.