Brazilians value their own home more than children, religion and stability

Brazilians value their own home more than children, religion and stability. This is what the QuintoAndar Housing Census shows, carried out by the startup in partnership with Instituto Datafolha.

The survey also showed that having a property is the dream of 87% of respondents. 3,186 people over 21 years old from all regions of the country were heard between October 11 and 21 of last year.

The importance of home ownership received an average score of 9.7 on a scale from 0 to 10, tied with having a profession and ahead of having financial stability (9.6), health insurance (9.2), religion ( 9), children (7.9) and getting married (6.9).

Bruno Rossini, communication director at QuintoAndar, emphasizes the fact that the interviewees give the same importance to housing and the profession. “Brazilians identify with this stability of home and work,” he says.

The recurring view that young people would not care about owning assets, such as their own home, is not supported by the survey: 91% of respondents between the ages of 21 and 24 say they dream of owning a property. This percentage drops as age advances — among those over 60, this desire is present in 81% of those who responded to the survey.

Also according to the census, 7 out of 10 respondents live in their own homes, with 62% already paid off and 8% financed. Another 27% live in rented houses and 3% are assigned or borrowed.

The level of satisfaction of Brazilians with their property increases as the average family income rises. Among those who earned up to two minimum wages (R$ 2,200), the score given to their home, from 1 to 10, is 8. Those who had an income greater than 10 minimum wages (R$ 11 thousand) give a score of 8.7 .

“The research sheds light on what it means to live well, and I believe that the variation not being so great has to do with the resignification of the house during the pandemic, there is no denying the effects of isolation”, says Rossini.

The house in which most respondents live has a bedroom (99%), bathroom (100%), kitchen (99%), living room (71%), dining room (55%), garage (71%) and service area (67%).

The suite is present in 23% of properties, but its share jumps to 80% among class A and drops to 6% in classes D and E.

Verticalization is a frequent debate in large cities, but 88% of Brazilians who participated in the survey live in houses.

Cultural producer Vinicius Murilo de Souza, 32, has always lived in houses in his hometown of Praia Grande (SP), but began to live in apartments when he moved to São Paulo eight years ago, sharing the property with other people.

With the arrival of the pandemic, however, he felt the need to have more space and live alone. “I wanted a spacious house, to be able to move around inside it, and that had a backyard, to have privacy”, he says.

After four months of searching, he found a house to rent in Butantã, a neighborhood in the west of São Paulo.

The property has two bedrooms, as do 47% of Brazilian homes, according to research by QuintoAndar. It also has a backyard, which is also present in 47% of the houses, and a small house, which the producer uses as an office, a still rare room, found in only 4% of the properties.

Having a space reserved for professional activity was a requirement for him when he looked for the property. “I wanted to have the feeling of leaving home to work, which makes all the difference. When I finish the tasks, I lock the shed and manage to live in the house without seeing things from work”, he says.

The home office entered Souza’s life with the arrival of the pandemic. Like him, 26% of respondents have started to work more from home since the beginning of the health crisis.

In this item, the division by social class is clear: 48% of people in class A started working from home, while only 21% of classes D and E said they worked from home.

Rossini analyzes that the culture of working from home is something that is still flourishing, and that new editions of the census, with no dates yet set, will be able to capture this change in behavior.

Another habit that the cultural producer acquired in the pandemic was taking care of plants, and the backyard of the new house, with pear and cherry, was the contact with nature he was looking for.

Among those interviewed, 37% also started to take better care of plants at home. Other household habits that grew with the pandemic were saying prayers (64%), performing household chores (60%), listening to music and cooking, both with a 56% prevalence.

In the future, Souza thinks about sharing his house with someone else, as 85% of Brazilians already do, who live with children (37%), spouse (23%) or parents (10%).

Another companion for domestic life is pets, present in 60% of national homes. The most common animal is the dog, which is in 47% of homes.

Souza did not think about having a home of his own until he moved to his current property. He identified so much with the new home that he even questioned the real estate company about the possibility of acquiring the property at some point, but for now, he continues with the lease.

“This house made me want to buy a lot, because it is a place with which I created such a strong relationship, [queria] know that I don’t have time to go out,” he says.

Souza’s connection to his home is also felt by many Brazilians. For 95% of respondents, home is their favorite place, and 76% spend most of their time there.

The long period spent inside the residence, since the beginning of the pandemic, is a factor that the cultural producer uses to explain the affective relationship he built with the house, so quickly. For him, it is as if the current property was his childhood home, and Rua do Butantã, the same street where he grew up.

“In childhood you live the house, it is your castle, your world”, he says. “In the pandemic, it seems that this has returned, the house has become the place where I live, not where I live. [apenas] rest”.