Urban law and the real estate sector: Economic interests and the law in the production of the city of São Paulo

The paper analyses the relationship between real estate sector’s demands regarding urban regulation and urban law norms edited in the city of São Paulo. The objective is to identify potential convergences of this economic sector’s expectations with what law consolidated. The research assesses the extent to which law reflects the aspirations of economic power in the production of the city. Being the most important financial center in Latin America, São Paulo is often described as a global city, capable of competing with other international metropolis. To achieve this status, the city must be able to attract economic inversions – not an easy task in a global market where other cities are competing. The real estate market is a vector promoting this model of city, potentially influencing decision making processes, the production and implementation of urbanization programmes. To the real estate sector, defining how capital shall flow within the urban territory, specially in inversions made by the State, is strategic to the goal of assuring the profitability of its economic investments. Once urbanization programmes are conceived and applied through legal instruments, law becomes both a resource and an objective. The article develops its argument in three moments. In the first part, the paper describes the demands of one representative actor of São Paulo’s real estate market regarding urban regulations: SECOVI (Sindicato da Habitação do Estado de São Paulo), the biggest association of contractors and real estate services in Latin America. In the second part, the regulatory framework established by two legal statutes is described: one creates public-private partnerships for “urban revitalization”, and another concerns the implementation of private property social function. In the third part, the two precedent descriptions are compared and the potential convergences of São Paulo’s real estate sector’s demands with the city’s urban regulations are discussed.