A surprising pandemic effect: Brazilians are buying more houses

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, real estate has been among Brazil’s most resilient economic sectors. Thanks to a combination of factors — including the country’s lowest benchmark interest rates in history — the segment managed to fulfill countless Brazilians’ dreams of abandoning rent and owning their own homes. While the country’s interest rates rose to 3.5 percent this week — and are set to increase further over the year — experts predict that the real estate boom will persist.

The pandemic seemed to be a perfect storm for the sector, with widespread uncertainty, a record unemployment rate, and construction stoppages due to coronavirus restrictions. But the actual results came as a positive surprise.

According to the Brazilian Association of Real Estate Credit and Savings Entities (Abecip), the total of real estate financing operations linked to savings accounts hit BRL 123.97 billion (USD 23.31 billion) last year — the best result since 2014 and 57.5 percent higher than 2019. The forecast for...