In July 2009, a Brazilian housing finance program called  Programa Minha Casa, Minha Vida (PMCMV) (“My House, My Life”) was signed into law. PMCMV’s goal is to create financial mechanisms to encourage the production or renovation of housing units to be sold to households with a monthly income of up to 5,000 Brazilian reais (about $2,300). It is doing this through federally-funded subsidies and tax incentives. From 2009 to mid-2012,  PMCMV disbursed $33 billion (at today’s conversion rate), of which R$10.4 billion was subsidies.

As of the 2010 census, Brazil had a housing deficit of about 5.8 million units. The government estimates that to “catch up” with current and future demand will require building about 24 million units by 2023.  As of mid-2012, about 1.7 million housing units had been contracted, and about 800,000 families had actually moved in to new housing.

Beneficiaries must fall within the income brackets served, and priority…