Expansion and deceleration of the formal private housing market from the 2000s onwards in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo

Abstract This study examines the housing market in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, which is considered a research laboratory due to its extent, variety of companies and municipal profiles, institutional frameworks, urban and housing policies. The urban real estate dynamics is analyzed in periods of expansion and deceleration of the real estate sector in the 2000s, focusing on specificities of processes involving the built environment in the cities of the region. A multi-scalar analysis was carried out, with macroeconomic and sectorial data, and a periodization was organized to characterize elements of the private housing supply, real estate agents and companies’ strategies by period and in different markets (mature and weak), as well as general trends. Changes in agents’ strategies and product profile were observed according to expansion or deceleration periods and city/market size.