Low-income rental and heritage preservation: the case of Boa Vista (Recife)

Abstract Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of the housing rental market in several Brazilian historic centers. In the Historic Center of Recife (HCR) – composed, roughly, of the neighborhoods of Bairro do Recife, Santo Antônio, São José and Boa Vista, which make up six different submarkets –, rental constitutes an important form of access to housing, especially for the low-income population. Considering that the Boa Vista submarket constitutes the last housing stronghold of the HCR, this use being a fundamental factor to the preservation of its built heritage, this article aims to analyze the functioning of the low-income housing rental market in Boa Vista, seeking to reveal the reasons for the resistance of this use in a historical centrality.