The Mayor's Office in Sao Paulo has just forwarded towards the Assembly of Councilmen, a proposed bill to incentivize historic downtown's redevelopment around some derelict areas.
Under the auspices of the new rezoning and enacted "Plano Diretor Estratégico" programs such as "Operacao Urbana Centro", "Renova Centro", "Projeto Nova Luz", and now "Requalifica Centro", which entailed to rezoning, landmarking, and under course public works projects, the "Operacao Urbana Centro" has attempted to improve Sao Paulo's Downtown reversal of fortunes and increase tax rolls through better utilization of private and public structures, and attract more permanent dwellers to the region, be as commercial enterprises or residencial.
Some initiatives have provided tepid results, such as steadily increasing property taxes on unused private assets ( buildings, vacant lots ). Some property owners have taken the initiative as a cue to rehab their existing holdings in the area.
The new proposed, and yet to be ratified by the Assembly, bill, known as "Requalifica Centro", provides incentives for investors who might acquire underutilized or vacant buildings otherwise previously employed as office buildings, and repurpose them into residential multi tenant buildings.
Proposed Incentives
• Property Tax exemption with a grace period of up to three years after the repurposed project has been completed and approved for occupancy.
• Progressive reduction of the Property tax for another five years. At the sixth year, the residential building or units, is assessed and billed full property tax.
• Reduction of taxes levied against the property rehab and rebuild executed services ( Engineering, Architectural Plans, Building, Cleaning and Maintenance ) at a rate of 2% on taxable ISS levy.
• Full exemption of property transfer tax in Sao Paulo ( that's a 3% over the higher value exacted through the transfer of deed ) on transfers with a pre devised and approved repurposing project
• Exemption of City Taxes for the install and functioning of the repurposed building.
The project has not yet met approval. The Property Tax requires the State to make concessions, but given the area in question ( roughly 0.2% of the City landmass ), and the fact the actual Governor wanted to make this happen while previously sitting as a Mayor, the odds are this shall pass.
Areas under consideration.
It's about a 2.5 Square Kilometer Area ( slightly under 1 Square Mile ) covering the following Neighborhoods
-Se - Full bore. All of it.
-Centro Historico Full bore. All of it.
-República - Quarter of it.
-Bela Vista. A sliver, about the lower Bela Vista.
These areas concentrate most of the older landmarked buildings, and most of the State and City Government Buildings. Below some photo montage links of the encompassed neighborhoods.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WjXAxVLESfeYrb1T7https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ym7SaP34UVVwJYAz5https://photos.app.goo.gl/9g31bUUoowvGMoq46
Investor;s program for Sao Paulo's Downtown.
Possibly interested, PM me if lose contact.
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11987350178
07/27/21
This is very good news. I really like São Paulo's Historic Center, and it breaks my heart to see the condition it's in whenever I'm there. I hope that it does some good! 
It is still a Proposed Bill, not passed just yet.
At first, since mid 2000's the City try to address this by progressive increase on property taxes on underutiulized or vacant properties. Some landlords took the cue and did repairs, upgrades and facelifts.
Since the pandemic, this plan was out of the window. Office vacancy rates took a nose dive for an area that already compete for tenancy with better off neighborhoods.
So now, they are targeting Fee Simple Office buldings mostly, to get them repurposed. Probably for market rate rentals, or condo conversions, as the city, state, and federal government have plenty of their own on delinquent properties they seized up. So they can use their holdings to build housing for the ones who can't afford market rates, and qualify for some special houysing program.
IMHO, doing studio sized apartments would be a mistake, as we have plenty of it already (I've run spreadsheets on inventrory ) . I feel the sweet spot would be on your 70-120 sq meters ( roughly 800-1300 sf ), for urban loft style apartments as they are non existent in form, and short supply on footage range. See below for conceptual designs
NYC examples
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ju45vErWPCwXh5eZ9https://photos.app.goo.gl/iwsmBbnFyGhvVpmy8https://photos.app.goo.gl/FzNt1q6ELHGvuMmm6https://photos.app.goo.gl/AipiUyRqoyJpwEXD7https://photos.app.goo.gl/AzEDFSJ6RGJfBxUaA
Figures, your comps for Se are about R$ 2.500 per sqm. Up to R$ 5.000 per sqm towards Historic Downtown, Repub;lica, and Bela Vista. Rehabing costs iwith paperwork and permits somewhere on the vicnity of R$ 1500 for non landmarked structures, or R$ 2.500 for landmarked structures. that on trotal built space.
Developers have pushed rates by R$ 10-12k per square meters on bare bones units, There would be still good margins for pushing unfinished units.
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