Real estate auction: what strategies can banks use to reduce the growth in sales of repossessed properties?

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The significant increase in the number of real estate auctions in Brazil has become a growing challenge for banks and financial institutions. The repossession of assets not only generates high operational and legal costs, but also compromises the full recovery of credit, since the assets are sold at significant discounts. In addition, this measure directly impacts customer relationships, making it essential to adopt preventive strategies based on data intelligence. In this article, we explore how advanced technologies can reduce defaults, optimize credit granting, and improve efficiency in locating and renegotiating debts, preventing more properties from reaching auction.

Real Estate Auction: Why Has the Volume of Repossessed Properties Increased in Brazil?
The number of assets repossessed and taken to Real Estate Auction has grown exponentially in recent years. In 2024 alone, Caixa Econômica Federal put 47,000 properties up for auction, a significant increase compared to the 26,000 in 2023 and the 9,000 in 2022. This phenomenon does not occur in isolation, but reflects the impact of a challenging macroeconomic scenario, in which inflation, unemployment and the reduction in the population's purchasing power have made real estate default a growing problem for financial institutions.

Part of this increase in real estate auctions is the result of a pent-up effect of the pandemic. During 2020 and 2021, many families renegotiated their debts or had access to emergency measures, such as installment payment pauses and flexibility in financing contracts. With the end of these benefits and the resumption of collections, many borrowers faced difficulties in resuming payments, leading to a significant increase in the execution of guarantees. The impact is mainly reflected in housing financing with FGTS, whose default rate has increased in recent years.

Furthermore, the format of the Real Estate Auction itself has Greece telegram data been modernized, becoming more accessible through digital platforms. If this market was previously restricted to specialized investors, today there is a growing volume of interested buyers, boosting the liquidity of these assets. However, this transformation does not eliminate the challenges of real estate default; it only highlights the need for new strategies to prevent more properties from reaching this critical stage of the credit recovery process.

Real Estate Auction: What are the Impacts and Challenges for Banks in Repossessing Assets?
Although real estate auctions are a legal mechanism for credit recovery, they represent a significant challenge for banks and financial institutions. In addition to the high operational and legal costs, there is also the need to manage the repossessed assets, which can remain immobilized for long periods. Even when the sale takes place, the property is often sold at discounts of up to 40%, resulting in a financial recovery well below the original financed value. This means that, in addition to not fully recovering the debt, the institution assumes additional losses throughout the process.

The impact of repossessing a property goes beyond the financial aspect. It is a drastic measure that, in most cases, displaces an entire family, leading to a deterioration in the relationship between the bank and its customers. Foreclosure of guarantees can reinforce a negative perception of the institution, reducing loyalty and harming future opportunities for granting credit. In addition, the cost of maintaining a collection rule until the final stage of the judicial execution can be high, requiring multiple calls, notifications and mobilization of specialized teams to deal with each case.

Given this scenario, preventing a property from being auctioned should be a priority for banks. Strategies to improve credit granting, assertive identification of debtors and proactive renegotiation can drastically reduce the need for extreme measures. The sooner a financial institution identifies customers at risk and offers viable alternatives for regularization, the greater the chances of avoiding the accumulation of operating expenses and preserving the relationship with the customer, ensuring more efficient and sustainable credit recovery.

Real Estate Auction: How Data Intelligence Can Reduce Risks in Credit Granting
Granting real estate credit requires increasingly accurate risk analysis, especially in light of the increase in defaults and real estate auctions . By using data intelligence, banks and financial institutions can anticipate scenarios and identify behavior patterns that indicate a higher risk of non-payment. Solutions such as Valida Fácil – Concession of Credit from Think Data , a leading information bureau in the national market, allow obtaining strategic data, such as family income, employment relationship, income tax refund and mobile phone validation, ensuring safer decisions that are adjusted to the financial reality of each client.

Furthermore, Valida Fácil allows the integration of the registration analysis with the main credit engines on the market, enabling a more agile and efficient approval process. Access to enriched data allows not only to reduce risks, but also to optimize processes, eliminating operational errors and making assessments more standardized. This model significantly improves the assertiveness of credit approval, reducing the chance of granting credit to customers with a high risk of default and avoiding the accumulation of repossessed properties in the future that will be taken to the Real Estate Auction .

Another advantage of data intelligence applied to credit granting is the ability to analyze legal and behavioral data through solutions such as Think Justiça, a differentiated product in the Think Data portfolio . With detailed queries on legal proceedings linked to a CPF or CNPJ, financial institutions can anticipate potential risks and make more informed decisions. In this way, the use of technology and predictive data becomes a decisive factor in avoiding default and ensuring that real estate financing is granted with greater security and predictability, avoiding the growth of Real Estate Auctions .

Real Estate Auction: Why Having Strategic Partners is Essential in Locating Debtors
Even with improvements to the credit granting process, banks and financial institutions will still have to deal with defaults. Real estate credit recovery requires not only agility, but also precision in locating debtors. Many banks face difficulties in this process due to outdated data or ineffective contact strategies, which results in unproductive negotiation attempts and, consequently, in the foreclosure of the property, thus increasing the number of real estate auctions . In this context, relying on strategic partners that offer advanced technology for cadastral enrichment and validation of debtor location information becomes essential to reverse this scenario and reduce operational collection costs.

Think Data , the only Brazilian company integrating Open Gateway , provides solutions that guarantee 100% accuracy in validating mobile phones in real time, directly with Claro, Vivo and Tim operators , with 100% coverage of national mobile telephony. With Online Operators and Guaranteed Location , it is possible to confirm whether the phone belongs to the debtor even before initiating contact, avoiding wasting resources on invalid numbers or numbers with low service propensity, significantly improving the success rate in negotiations.