Abstract This article aims to describe and exemplify how Brazil undergoes a transition from neo-development to neoliberalism in the second decade of the 21st century and to point out some possible developments of this process on public housing policies. Considering the assertion that historically capitalism in Brazil has depended on a certain participation of the popular classes to develop, and analyzing the governments of Lula and Dilma (2003-2016) in opposition to the recent Temer government, it is possible to find the hypothesis that the country undergoes a new transition of economic regime, back to the neoliberalism adopted in the 1990s by Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC) and this transition can be a challenge to Brazilian development, with direct consequences for the popular housing. The article is based on a dialectical and qualitative approach, which is carried out through the analysis and interpretation of the theoretical references, as well as the data collected with documentary research.