In a zero-growth stagnant Italy, the only one to run is the Lombard capital, which attracts more and more investments from abroad. From the post Expo area to the former Falck area of Sesto San Giovanni, the city of the future is built from Santa Giulia to Porta Romana.
“Thirteen billion real estate investments will come in the next ten years”. The mayor of Milan, Beppe Sala, is the one who could say so. Because in stagnant zero-growth Italy, the only one to run is Milan. It attracts private capital for the certainty of the rules and the speed of bureaucracy, it hosts half of the multinationals present in Italy and makes 10% of the national GDP. This is why it has become the European capital of investments according to the 2019 Real Estate Scenarios report. In June, Milan broke the real estate sales record: 1.6 billion euros, a leap of + 38.9% compared to the first six months of 2018 (Data Prelios). Almost all of them are foreign capital: the main investors come from the United States, Germany and Asia (82.4%). And in the first nine months of 2019 there were 2.1 billion euros of investments. It’s not a casualty. The year before 2.8 billion of investments arrived, in 2017 they were 4.3. Difficult to read but easy to understand numbers. The sense is one: Milan has become the gold mine of real estate. There is, however, a difference between 2018 and 2019. Now large groups are no longer investing in the historic centre, but aiming at the suburban areas (580 million invested) and at the Porta Nuova Project (420). There are not only sales: by 2024, 730 thousand square meters of new real estate market are expected. A 2.9 billion turnover that still does not take into account the 2026 Olympics and the construction of the new stadium for Inter and Milan. Many billions in investment in the hands of a few important real estate companies that coordinate private works to build Milan in 2030. Like the US fund Hines which in June announced investments of 3 billion euros by 2023. For now, north of the city deals with the Prelios group to redevelop the Sesto San Giovanni area, where once there were the Falck steelworks: 1.45 million square meters, the largest redevelopment area in Italy. In April the group bought a smaller but significant lot: the former Trotto Hippodrome: 145 thousand square meters near the San Siro Stadium. The idea is to build a residential complex of 400 apartments to rent. However, it will have to harmonize with the project of the new plant that Inter and Milan would like to build instead of Meazza. But the details are still missing. Hines has also started a new development that in two years will lead to a 1200-bed student residence near Porta Ticinese, in Via Giovenale, in the Bocconi area. There is also Värde Partners that together with Borio Mangiarotti will invest 250 million euros to build a new neighbourhood in over 300 thousand square meters between Via Calchi Taeggi and Via Bisceglie. Or the Australians of Lendlease, who have obtained the redevelopment of the post-Expo area and together with the company Risanamento are building a new business district in Santa Giulia around the Sky headquarters which in October was definitively purchased for 262 million euros. There, a few steps from the Rogoredo forest, by the end of 2021 the Spark One and Spark Two buildings will be completed. Still south of Milan, the French real estate company Covivio won the Reinventing cities competition in the Via Serio area, within the urban regeneration project involving 14 European metropolises. Very close, in the Ripamonti area, Covivio has also signed the Symbiosis project, the new business and technology district, in which it has already built the Fastweb and Cirfood offices.
To guide the wind of real estate investments the City Council has not built walls, but mills
In the real estate match in Milan there is also Coima led by Manfredi Catella, the man behind the development of the Porta Nuova area that defined the modern city skyline now owned by the Qatar fund. To understand, from the Bosco Verticale of Stefano Boeri to the Unicredit skyscraper. Right next to the Torre Coima, he bought the Pavillon in 2018 and rented it to IBM. And in October it bought the Microsoft and Philips offices for a total of 158 million euros. Also, for this reason, on November 8th Coima signed a preliminary contract to sell 11 bank branches in Northern Italy by 2020 for € 23.5 million. Coima, Covivio and Hines and other large real estate companies are still competing for the redevelopment of the Scalo di Porta Romana which will host the Olympic village in 2026. The slice is delicious because after the Winter Olympics the goal is to reconvert the buildings into dormitories, in a coveted university area. That of Porta Romana is one of the seven former Milan railway stations that the Municipality of Milan has planned to redevelop thanks to an agreement signed with Ferrovie dello Stato in 2017. The others are Farini, Greco, Lambrate, Rogoredo, Porta Genova and San Cristoforo. To date, the most initiated project is that of Farini-San Cristoforo with a completely green plan by the Swedish studio Oma which won the masterplan organized by Coima and Fs. All beautiful, «But the phenomenon must be governed because a still too limited part of the city is enjoying this positive moment. We are moving forward on this path, guaranteeing more equity “said Sala at the Linkiesta Festival. To guide the wind of real estate investments, the City Council has not built walls, but mills. It did so by approving the Territorial Government Plan. A document that sets rules and rules to guarantee the correct urban development of the area of 2.9 million square meters. To avoid concrete pouring in disfigurement to the environment, it has introduced the obligation for new buildings (including those with demolition and reconstruction), to be zero CO2 emissions. But not only. “The rules contained in the Pgt will push investments towards three directions: more houses for rent at controlled prices, construction of at least twenty new parks and 1.6 billion euros to bring regeneration and quality of life in the suburbs,” Pierfrancesco Maran told Linkiesta, city planning commissioner of the Municipality of Milan. «We must respond to the needs of those who live in Milan. To young people, who need affordable housing, to those who live in areas of the city that have benefited less from growth in recent years, to all citizens who ask for more greenery and attention to the environment “. The phenomenon should not be underestimated. If the real estate market is lively and fabulous buildings are built around it, the temptation to sell the property or ask for more rent is higher, perhaps targeting tourists. And the price goes up, leaving out most of the 200,000 kids who study in Milan or those who come to the Lombard capital to look for a job. This is confirmed by a Tecnocasa survey on the first six months of 2019: renting a studio apartment in Milan costs 6.1% more than in 2018. The three-room apartments (+ 5.3%) and two-room apartments (+4, 2%). And according to the latest report on the real estate market of Nomisma, in Milan the prices of existing houses increased slightly (+ 0.2%), more the new ones (+ 0.8%).
12 november 2019
Source: LINKiesta