Study of low-income housing and low-income market housing in the zeis (special zones of social interest) in the lapa district of sao paulo, brazil, following the 2002 master plan

Abstract

This paper analyzes the production of low-income housing in the Lapa district of São Paulo, Brazil, in the period following the city's release of a Master Plan in 2002, which established Special Zones of Social Interest (ZEIS) designed to control land value in certain areas of the city to provide affordable housing for low-income residents. The study is intended to help those promoting low-income housing, such as city governments and private developers, to review and improve the ZEIS and provide housing for the poor. While the ZEIS focused on in this study mainly consist of slums or shantytowns, they were close to more valuable areas. This article shows that these ZEIS were attractive to developers, who many times ignored the requirement to build low-income housing and preferred to develop homes for buyers with higher income.