Fazenda Vila Real de Itu

History

Fazenda Vila Real de Itu has a documented rural origin: it came from the Fazenda Nossa Senhora da Conceição, a property that arose in the 18th century from the joining of two tracts of 211 alqueires. The conversion into a real estate development happened in August 1976 — which makes Vila Real one of Brazil’s first gated country land subdivisions, from the same founding generation that put Itui on the map of this market.

Half a century later, the farm is still legible in the subdivision. Of the 4.6 million square metres, 1.3 million is native forest, and 22% of the total area is common land — woods and gardens that belong to no lot. The condominium’s own survey counts 172 plant species and 96 animal species, of which 48 are birds, and it maintains an orchid house. This is not landscaping: it is a remnant, preserved by occupation rules.

• Concept: the country subdivision as a continuation of the farm that gave rise to it — sparse occupation on large lots, with a third of the territory kept as forest.
• Curiosities: communal life is that of a village, not a club: there is a chapel with mass every weekend, entertainers on every holiday and school break, a June festival, fireworks, Halloween and recitals on the administration’s official calendar.

Architecture and aesthetics

There is no single architectural design: the lots go to custom construction, each with at least three thousand square metres of land, and the design is left to each owner’s architect. What gives the complex its coherence is the density — 940 lots on 4.6 million square metres means freestanding houses, with no street alignment and no adjoining neighbours, with the forest as a permanent backdrop. About 600 houses already built over nearly fifty years of occupation produce the same stratification of eras seen in Itu’s founding subdivisions: a 1970s or 1980s country house next to a contemporary rebuild, each with the language of its decade. The built landscape is secondary; what is seen from the street are the lakes, the trails and the woodland.

Aesthetics and scarcity

Technical specifications

• Towers and units: it is not a tower. It is a gated land subdivision with 940 lots and about 600 houses built, on 4.6 million m², of which 22% is common woods and gardens.
• Sizes: the size here is that of the lot, not the house: plots of at least 3,000 m², for custom construction. The built area varies with each owner’s design.
• Parking: according to the house and the design.
• Structural highlights: 1.3 million m² of native forest within the perimeter; 172 plant species and 96 animal species catalogued, including 48 bird species; orchid house; lakes for fishing and water sports; five trails.
• Registry and parameters: a gated subdivision in the Itaim district, in Itu/SP, with its own postcode at the Post Office (13312-901, linked to km 113,5 of the Rodovia Marechal Rondon) — a registry sign of a consolidated perimeter. Outside the scope of the tax lot and zoning data of the São Paulo municipal survey.

Leisure and facilities

• Multi-sport, tennis, beach tennis, squash and paddle courts
• Football pitch
• Gym
• Pools
• Lakes for fishing and water sports
• Five trails and a zip line
• Jogging track
• Chapel, with mass every weekend
• Restaurant, pizza nights and themed lunches
• Convenience and food shop
• Orchid house
• Children’s entertainment on weekends, holidays and school breaks

Location and surroundings

Points of interest · distances in metres

Itu: the address

Itui is the historic town a little over a hundred kilometres west of the capital, and Fazenda Vila Real sits at km 113,5 of the Rodovia Marechal Rondoni — the SP-300, the old axis that linked São Paulo to the western interior before the Rodovia Castello Brancoi, and which is still today the road for those coming from Sorocaba and the interior. It was in Itu that the 1873 republican convention was held, and it is from Itu that the national fame of the giant replicas the city has turned into its identity comes. For those buying here, what matters is the geography: 97 kilometres to the capital, one of the state’s mildest climates, and the highest density of gated country subdivisions in the country within a radius of a few kilometres. Itu is the birthplace of the formula — wall, gatehouse, club and large lot an hour from the metropolis — and Vila Real is among the addresses that invented it.