Regente Guide
Real Estate Glossary
Essential terms for informed real estate decisions.
Three depth levels. Examples from the Florianópolis market.
59 terms
ABNT NBR 12721 (Construction Cost Standard)
ABNT NBR 12721 is the Brazilian technical standard that sets the criteria for evaluating costs in real estate developments, including the methodology used to calculate the CUB (Basic Construction Cost).…
Adverse Possession (Usucapião)
Adverse possession (usucapião) is set out in the Civil Code (arts. 1,238 to 1,244) and recognizes that someone who possesses a property as if they were the owner, openly, peacefully,…
Annotation (Averbação)
Annotation (averbação) is the procedure by which facts or legal acts that modify, extinguish, or affect rights related to a property or its owners are formally recorded on the title…
Assessed Value (Valor Venal)
The assessed value (valor venal) is calculated by the city government based on a generic value table (approved by municipal law) that considers location, area, type, and construction standard —…
CCI (Real Estate Credit Note)
The CCI (Cédula de Crédito Imobiliário) is the legal instrument representing mortgage loan debt in Brazil. When you sign a financing contract, the bank issues a CCI backed by the…
CET — Total Effective Cost
The Total Effective Cost (Custo Efetivo Total, or CET) is the indicator that expresses, as an annual percentage, all charges and expenses involved in a mortgage loan — including the…
CRI (Real Estate Receivable Certificate)
A CRI (Certificado de Recebíveis Imobiliários) is issued by securitization companies backed by a pool of real estate receivables (CCIs, long-term lease contracts). An investor who buys a CRI is…
CUB — Basic Construction Cost Index
CUB (Custo Unitário Básico, or Basic Construction Cost) is an index that tracks the change in direct residential construction costs, calculated monthly by each state's Construction Industry Union (Sinduscon) using…
Cap Rate
The cap rate (capitalization rate) is the fundamental metric for evaluating income-producing properties. Formula: Cap Rate = Annual Net Operating Income ÷ Property Value. Net operating income excludes estimated vacancy,…
Capital Gain (Ganho de Capital)
Capital gain is the positive difference between the price at which a property is sold and the acquisition cost recorded by the seller. This profit is subject to individual income…
Certificate of Occupancy (Habite-se)
The habite-se (certificate of occupancy) is issued after a municipal inspection confirms that construction was carried out in accordance with the building permit. Without it, the property exists physically but…
Contract Rescission (Distrato)
Before Law 13,786/2018, retention percentages in a distrato (contract rescission) were set by case law, which created legal uncertainty. The law established clear rules: in developments without a segregated asset…
Due Diligence
Real estate due diligence goes beyond reviewing the property registry (matrícula). It involves checking the seller's credit record with SCPC/Serasa, certificates confirming no pending labor, tax, or civil lawsuits, verifying…
Earnest Money Deposit (Arras)
Arras, commonly called the deposit or sinal, is the amount the buyer gives the seller as an advance on the price and as confirmation of the contract. Under Brazilian law,…
Easement (Servidão Predial)
An easement (servidão predial) is a real right over another's property by which one property, called the dominant estate, gains the right to use or to impose a restriction on…
Estate (Espólio)
The estate (espólio) is the body of assets left by someone who has died, comprising all the property, rights, and debts of the deceased (de cujus). Although not a legal…
FGTS (Severance Indemnity Fund) for Home Purchase
The Severance Indemnity Fund for Employees (Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Serviço, or FGTS) can be used to purchase, build, or pay down financing for an urban residential property,…
FII (Brazilian Real Estate Investment Trust)
FIIs are closed-end funds traded on Brazil's B3 stock exchange. There are two main groups: brick FIIs (which own physical properties — malls, corporate office floors, warehouses, residential buildings) and…
Fiduciary Lien (Alienação Fiduciária)
Alienação fiduciária (fiduciary lien) is the legal mechanism through which the bank retains formal ownership of the property for the entire term of the financing. The buyer holds possession and…
Floor-Area Ratio (Coeficiente de Aproveitamento)
The Floor-Area Ratio (Coeficiente de Aproveitamento, or CA) is the index that, multiplied by the lot's area, sets the total buildable area allowed on that lot under municipal zoning. Together…
Georeferencing (Georreferenciamento)
Georeferencing is the process by which the boundary vertices of a rural property are determined using absolute coordinates referenced to the Brazilian Geodetic System (SGB), through satellite geodesy techniques (precision…
Guarantor (Fiador)
A guarantor (fiador) is the person who, through a suretyship agreement (contrato de fiança), assumes before the creditor the responsibility to fulfill the main debtor’s obligation if the debtor fails…
Home Equity Loan
With a home equity loan, you pledge a property as collateral and obtain credit at rates close to those of standard mortgage financing — generally between 1% and 1.5% per…
IPCA (Brazil’s Official Inflation Index)
Measured monthly by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the IPCA tracks price changes for a consumption basket of households earning between 1 and 40 times the minimum…
IPTU (Urban Property Tax)
The IPTU is a municipal tax levied on any urban property (land or building). The rate varies by municipality and property type — in Florianópolis, residential properties are taxed between…
ITBI — Real Estate Transfer Tax
ITBI is a municipal tax levied on any transfer of real estate for consideration between living persons (inter vivos), such as a purchase and sale, a payment-in-kind settlement (dação em…
ITCMD — Inheritance and Gift Tax
ITCMD is a state-level tax levied whenever an asset or right is transferred free of charge, either through the owner's death (inheritance and bequest) or through a lifetime gift. For…
Ideal Fraction (Fração Ideal)
In a condominium building, the land and common areas (visitor parking, lobby, pool) do not belong to any single resident individually — they belong to everyone in proportional shares. This…
Improvements (Benfeitorias)
An improvement (benfeitoria) is any work or expense made by someone who possesses or occupies a property belonging to another, with the purpose of preserving, upgrading, or beautifying the asset.…
Internal Rate of Return (IRR / Taxa Interna de Retorno)
The Internal Rate of Return (IRR, or TIR in Portuguese) is the indicator that represents an investment’s effective return over time, expressed as an annual percentage rate. Mathematically, it is…
LCI (Real Estate Credit Bill)
The LCI (Letra de Crédito Imobiliário) is issued by banks to raise funds for real estate financing. In exchange, it offers individual investors full exemption from income tax — which,…
Laudêmio (Union Transfer Premium)
Terrenos de marinha ("marine lands") are 33-meter-wide strips measured from the 1831 high-tide line, running along coasts and navigable rivers. Full (allodial) ownership belongs to the Federal Government (União); properties…
Loan Portability
Regulated by Brazil's Central Bank (CMN Resolution 4,292/2013), loan portability lets a borrower move the outstanding balance of a mortgage to another bank offering a lower rate, without paying an…
Logistics Condominium
Logistics condominiums are industrial parks with warehouses for lease or sale, aimed at e-commerce, distribution, light manufacturing, and food service companies. Unlike a conventional warehouse, they feature professional management, shared…
Mortgage (Hipoteca)
A mortgage (hipoteca) is a real right of guarantee through which a debtor offers a property as security to a creditor, without having to hand over possession of the property.…
OODC — Paid Building Rights Grant
The Paid Building Rights Grant (Outorga Onerosa do Direito de Construir, or OODC) is the instrument set out in Brazil's City Statute (Law 10,257/2001, Articles 28 to 31) that lets…
P/B — Price-to-Book Ratio
P/B (Preço sobre Valor Patrimonial, or price-to-book) is a valuation multiple used mainly to analyze Brazilian Real Estate Investment Funds (Fundos de Investimento Imobiliário, or FIIs). It's calculated by dividing…
Power of Attorney (Procuração)
In real estate transactions, a power of attorney (procuração) is a public instrument executed at a Notary Office. It must be specific — identifying the property, the powers granted (to…
Price Table (Price System)
Under the Price Table (Tabela Price) system, installments are constant — the same amount throughout the contract, assuming a fixed rate. This makes budgeting easier and, in general, raises the…
Probate (Inventário)
Probate (inventário) is the legal process through which a deceased person’s estate (espólio) is identified, appraised, and formally transferred to their heirs or beneficiaries. Until probate is finished and the…
Property Swap (Permuta)
In a property swap (permuta), the parties exchange properties of similar value, with or without a cash balancing payment (a “torna”). Unlike a sale, a swap is an exchange contract…
Property Title Record (Matrícula do Imóvel)
Every property has a title record (matrícula) at a specific Real Estate Registry Office (CRI), determined by its location. The title record documents the property’s entire legal history: origin date,…
Public Deed (Escritura Pública)
A public deed of purchase and sale (escritura pública) is the legal instrument through which the seller formally transfers ownership of a property to the buyer, backed by the public…
Purchase-and-Sale Agreement (Compromisso de Compra e Venda)
The purchase-and-sale agreement (also called a promise to purchase and sell, compromisso or promessa de compra e venda) is the contract by which the parties commit to executing, at a…
RET — Special Taxation Regime
The Special Taxation Regime (Regime Especial de Tributação, or RET) is a tax option created by Law 10.931/2004 that lets a developer pay four federal taxes — PIS, COFINS, CSLL,…
Real Estate Agent’s Commission (Comissão de Corretagem)
The real estate agent's commission is the fee paid to a real estate agent licensed by CRECI (the regional real estate brokers' council) in exchange for the brokerage work that…
Real Estate Registry Office (Registro de Imóveis)
The Real Estate Registry Office (Cartório de Registro de Imóveis, CRI) is the body responsible for registering every act that affects real estate ownership: sales, gifts, mortgages, fiduciary liens, usufructs,…
Real Estate Yield (Yield Imobiliário)
Real estate yield (yield imobiliário, or gross rental yield) is the indicator that expresses, as an annual percentage, the relationship between the rental income a property generates and its market…
Right of First Refusal (Direito de Preferência)
The right of first refusal is the legal entitlement that requires a property seller to offer the sale to the rights holder before selling the asset to anyone else, on…
SAC (Constant Amortization System)
Under the SAC (Constant Amortization System), the principal amortization is fixed across every installment. Since interest is charged on the outstanding balance (which shrinks month by month), payments decrease over…
SELIC Rate
The Selic rate is Brazil’s benchmark monetary policy interest rate. When the Central Bank raises the Selic rate to control inflation, the cost of real estate credit rises — loan…
SFH (Housing Finance System)
The SFH (Sistema Financeiro da Habitação) is Brazil's main housing credit system, regulated by Law 4,380/1964. It sets a financing cap (currently R$1.5 million), limits the interest rate to 12%…
Security Deposit (Caução)
The caução (security deposit) is the simplest and most direct guarantee in a residential lease: the tenant deposits up to three times the monthly rent into a savings account tied…
Segregated Development Estate (Patrimônio de Afetação)
Set out in Law 4,591/1964 (arts. 31-A to 31-F, added by Law 10,931/2004), the segregated development estate (patrimônio de afetação) creates a ring-fenced estate for each real estate development. Buyers’…
Side Agreement (Contrato de Gaveta)
A side agreement (contrato de gaveta, literally “drawer contract”) is a private instrument — usually an assignment of rights or a purchase-and-sale promise — through which the buyer of a…
Specifications Document (Memorial Descritivo)
The specifications document (memorial descritivo) is part of the development filing process and is registered with the CRI along with the real estate development. It details flooring, wall finishes, window…
Spousal Consent (Outorga Conjugal)
Spousal consent (outorga conjugal) is the formal approval required from one spouse before the other can carry out certain acts disposing of real estate. Without this consent, the spouse who…
Usufruct (Usufruto)
Usufruct (usufruto) is a real right over another person’s property through which the usufructuary (usufrutuário) gains the right to use the property and collect its fruits and income, while the…
Vacancy Rate (Taxa de Vacância)
The vacancy rate measures the share of units or leasable area that remain unoccupied relative to the total available in a property, development, or portfolio, over a reference period. It…