Brazil: Bolsonaro government sold a total of US$145 million worth of real estate

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  Since the current government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) took office in 2019, 211 Union properties with a total value of R$675.9 million (US$145 million) have been sold. This gives an average of R$205.4 million per year, excluding 2022, which is still ongoing.

Compared to previous presidents Michel Temer (MDB) and Dilma Rousseff (PT), this is a 93% increase. And it coincides with what Bolsonaro (PL) and his Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said during the election campaign, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Guedes said then that he wanted to sell R$1 trillion (US$212 billion) worth of union property. The amount sold is less than one-thousandth of the estimate.

In December 2020, already after almost two years in office, the SPU (Secretariat of Union Property) and the Secretariat of Privatization, Disinvestment and Markets, which are part of the Ministry of Economy, prepared a plan with the goal of selling 10% of it: R$110 billion.

The actual value so far is less than one-hundredth of what was planned. The person responsible for this plan was the Special Secretary for Privatization, Divestment, and Markets, Diogo Mac Cord.

The year 2020, when the most properties were sold and the most revenue was generated from this movement, was the year in which the plan was introduced.

Ninety properties were sold for R$309.3 million. In 2021, 47 were sold for R$253 million. The data was obtained from the SPU (Secretariat of the Union Heritage) through the LAI (Law on Access to Information) and updated through the IPCA (National Wide Consumer Price Index). Since 2012, the cumulative value of sales is R$1.42 billion.

The total assets of the SPU amount to R$1.34 trillion, distributed in 723,699 properties. Currently, the state uses 56,191 properties whose value amounts to R$1.07 trillion and therefore was not included in the list of possible sales. These properties include the Alvorada Palace and the Planalto Palace.

Another 667,508 properties are used for other purposes and have an estimated value of R$275.7 billion.

From 2012 to 2015, Dilma sold R$477 million worth of state-owned real estate. Temer sold R$212.5 million in 2017 and 2018. According to SPU, there is no data on the number of properties sold before 2016.

Until then, the Secretariat said, this process was carried out by regional supervisors. However, the amounts collected were recorded.

With information from Poder360