Anyone walking along Oscar Freire Street — especially in the hub that concentrates the region’s fashion retail, in Jardins — may have to dodge one or another construction site. It wasn’t quite like that. A luxury landscape in the city of São Paulo, the region is seeing an increase in rental prices and a change in the profile of commerce caused by the growing interest in the real estate market.
A study carried out by Siila at the request of InfoMoney shows that the vacancy rate for commercial buildings on Rua Oscar Freire alone grew from 5.05% in 2021 to 36.71%, reflecting the deliveries of new condominiums between 2024 and 2025, as developers move forward with residential and corporate projects on the street.
In the second half of 2025 alone, the developer Cyrela () launched four high-end projects on the outskirts of Oscar Freire. Cyrela Corporate by Pininfarina, located in Pinheiros, will house Nubank in the Pinheiros neighborhood.
In Jardins, at , stores such as Forum and Cristallo, at 900 Oscar Freire, on the corner of Haddock Lobo, gave way to the work of a residential building with 13 units, one per floor, with duplex and triplex options, by developer RFM.
This reduction in the supply of stores due to demolition for new projects not yet delivered is temporarily putting pressure on supply. At the same time, the arrival of the subway and Oscar Freire’s urban development increased high-income consumption in the region. The result? One square meter more expensive.
A survey conducted by real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield calculates the average annual price per square meter in the region at 1,128 euros. Almost R$ 7 thousand in conversion after an appreciation of 65% in 2025 between 140 countries.
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“The predominant profile of residential developments in the region is of a very high standard, with strong attention to architectural quality, location and integration with the urban surroundings”, explains the partner and real estate fund manager at rio Bravo Investimentos, Alexandre Rodrigues, manager of a fund with an asset on the street. “There is still a significant volume of projects under construction, which indicates that a large part of this real estate cycle is still in the implementation phase.”
Master Plan and Zoning Law
It was the changes to the 2014 Strategic Master Plan and the 2016 Zoning Law that paved this way. Under the rules, regions close to metro stations had incentives for greater verticalization, transforming nearby land into so-called Structuring Axis Zones (ZEU), where it is allowed to take projects to their maximum construction potential, with no verticalization limit. This radius was expanded in 2023, with the revision of the Master Plan.
The idea was to increase the demographic and construction density of certain regions to attract more residents to areas with better equipped public spaces and a public transport system. In practice, at Oscar Freire, this encouraged some owners of store plots to sell them to developers.
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“The first feeling was that Oscar Freire was losing its stores to make room for buildings. In fact, it didn’t happen. They understood that it would be important to keep the facades on the side of the street, so they will come back beautiful, modern, conceptual”, explains the president of the Commercial Association of Jardins and Itaim Shopkeepers, Rosangela Lyra.
For developers, there is a benefit in developing projects with active facades and relocating stores in the region, as the Master Plan disregards up to 50% of the area allocated to the instrument, increasing the possibility of construction. “What is serious is that this new profile that is being built disregards what existed before. The city gains in commercial terms, but loses in terms of identity, culture, business potential”, says the professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Valter Caldana.
Caldana considers that there is a fundamental problem in the São Paulo Master Plan that can be observed in the changes underway at Oscar Freire. Very focused on the rules within construction lots, such as the size of the buildings, their construction potential, he forgets to look at the relationship between the buildings and the city.
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“The width of the sidewalk, the frontal setback of the building, its contribution to improving the passage in terms of lighting, furniture, drainage, comfort, benches, internet and vegetation are left to be desired”, points out the professor.
Growing demand for services
And even though retailers find active storefronts an alternative to maintaining their business in the region, there are signs that new residents may come to the detriment of stores in the region. “In a city with São Paulo’s mobility difficulties, doing everything on foot is a luxury. It’s a privilege”, says Lyra.
From 2022 to 2023, the number of stores not registered as food retail or pharmacy and cosmetics, a category where fashion retailers are located, fell by 5%. Practically all of this volume was absorbed by the food services sector, according to a study carried out by the data platform Varejo 360 at the request of InfoMoney.
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Fernando Faro, operations director at Varejo 360, believes that real estate expansion in the region only leaves the remaining points more valued, making commercial exploration accessible only to big brands. He highlights, however, that despite a drop in the number of stores, projected revenue for street retail grew from R$316 million in 2024 to R$363 million in 2025.
Luxury at Oscar Freire (or close to it)
Founded as the Commercial Association of Shopkeepers of Oscar Freire, the association was born in 2004 during the revitalization of the street, completed in 2006 with the burial of the electrical network, renovation of the sidewalks and renovation of the region’s urban furniture. It was the moment when several important brands with a more popular profile decided to explore the region to showcase their brands.
One of them is Pantys, which managed to ride on the fame and prestige of the street to legitimize the business that was taking its first steps. “Looking back, it was a risk that we launched the physical store. We had four months and it was important because, as it was a very new product, people had a lot of doubts. And, later, it ended up becoming an important sales channel”, he said From Zero to Top, do InfoMoney.
Anyone who walks there can see: Havaianas, Melissa, Nespresso, Calvin Klein, all displaying their windows in large architectural projects at Oscar Freire; Just down two blocks, to Haddock Lobo, brand stores like Gucci, Dior, Armani and Louis Vuitton show their faces.
This disposition of international luxury in the region is another part of the change. Since the founding of Shops Jardins in 2020, many European brands have decided to migrate within the walls. “The founding of Shops Jardins, on Hadock Lobo, was a great milestone. In fact, it was on this street where these large, truly luxury stores had always been located.”
