Running against the clock

The Relatório de Pesquisa e Análise de Mercado (Report of Research and Analysis of the Market) from ITC shows that—in spite of the crisis—investments in areas such as commercial and infrastructure had a better performance than those carried out in the area of real estate

The two last years were difficult for Brazilian economy. After open-sky flying taking profit from a growing economy, it had to stop suddenly and to adjust itself to the new reality of the country. This situation did not save any area and bankrupted a lot of companies.

Due to this reason, the reading of the Report of Research and Analysis of the Market issued by ITC in 2017 brings some surprises. It shows that the area of infrastructure, included in the commercial business, received a considerable volume of resources if compared to the investments in residential and Industrial areas. It is important to point out the total of resources directed to road, commercial and tourist projects. In principle, this may sign to the continuity of investments that were already going on or to the strong participation of foreign investors in these areas, considering the reduction of public investments in all areas of infrastructure in the country.

In the industrial area, the focus remained with Power and Basic Sanitation, which are showing a recovery as attraction pole of investments. The worst result of the crisis is coming from the residential area, in the last place of investments. This is justified by the strong reduction of the purchasing power of the population in general. But 2018 is coming and the economy runs against the clock searching for concrete results of recovery.

Commercial

The comparison by area in the first half of 2017 shows a good performance of Commercial Projects, that also involve Infrastructure works. The number of road projects was surprising: a total of 563 works, followed by Commercial Projects (461 works) and Tourism (331 works). Total investments were near US$ 500 billion, mostly directed to Road (US$ 75 billion) and Hydric (US$ 18 billion) projects. Commercial Projects represented more than 6 million sq.mt. of built-up area.

Industrial

In turn, the industrial area identified 1224 projects in the period, with special highlight to the area of Energy (494 projects), what shows the strong demand of resources for this industry. Basic Sanitation had a total of 186 projects, and Consumption, a total of 156 projects. It is important to highlight the volume of resources directed to the area of Food and Beverage, followed by Oil and Alike, and the Agribusiness, respectively with US$ 31 and 23 billion.

Residential

Residential buildings had a strong reduction of investments. Its total reached US$ 20 billion, a performance quite below Commercial and Industrial areas. A total of 3931 projects were evaluated, with  the highest number (3678) involving residential buildings. This corresponds to a built-up area of more than 48 million sq.mt. Southeastern region continues in the first place with 3792 projects (52 percent of the total), followed by the Southern region, with 1522 projects (21 percent), Northern/Northeastern region, with 1429 projects (20 percent) and Center-Western region, with 621 projects (7 percent).