Fiduciary Alienation in the Minha Casa Minha Vida Program

Abstract

Minha Casa Minha Vida Program, created in 2009, aims to expand access to housing in Brazil but it operates under a financialization model that subjects beneficiaries to contracts governed by fiduciary alienation, as established by Law number 9.514/1997. This study analyzes the impacts of this mechanism, particularly in the context of default, extrajudicial auctions, and its influence on Brazilian urban dynamics. The research is based on a documentary analysis of regulations and contracts, official data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and the land mapping of repossessed properties between 2019 and 2023. The results reveal that most extrajudicial auctions involve financing in PMCMV’s income stage 2 (Program), accounting for 79.9% during the observed period, with the highest incidence in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and Rio Grande do Sul. Although the PMCMV has contributed to the expansion of real estate credit, its financing model exposes borrowers to an asymmetrical contractual structure, favoring creditors and allowing the appropriation of housing subsidies by individual investors, who acquire auctioned properties at below-market prices. Thus, instead of ensuring housing stability, fiduciary alienation increases beneficiaries' vulnerability and reinforces a process of accumulation by dispossession, this undermine the right to housing.