While the demand for land has increased, its immediate results for urban planning is the lack of fulfilment of existing urbanistic plans. For example, the main categories created in the plan, such as industrial, residential, recreational and green zones were ‘assaulted’ by people who, with different reasons, tried to get land. No specific delimitation of urban land was clear, and the houses, industries, farms and gardens or recreational spaces mixed with each other, even the space reserved for roads or future avenues was settled by people and their houses.
If this land occupancy is visualized on a map, it is possible to see the mosaic of different types of land use and occupation reflects the lack of observances of whatever had been previously planned (see map 2).
On the other side, while the inflationary pressure on the economy has became the order of the day, many of those who have a lot of money or ample finance resources usually seek to invest in land, not to use it for production or effective occupancy, but for speculation. The reason for that is the trend of land values and prices which increase in an upward spiral. The consequence is that where it has been planned to be industrial and agriculture zone, is now a plot with a wall and grass, that is called “quinta” or “casa de fim-de-semana”. The inverse situation of this side is the concentration of poor people in places with very precarious conditions of water drainage, swampy land, and so on.
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