italian insights | investment

Italy | Possible Future Scenarios​

The Italian real estate market recorded a strong 2019 in terms of investment volume and office take-up in the cities of Rome and Milan. The beginning of 2020 saw activity carried on by deals started at the end of 2019. Moreover, important portfolios were on the market and their disposal process should have been sold in the current year. Finally, some refurbished assets were expected to end their works and should have been sold as core assets.

The arrival of the Covid-19 has changed all this, bringing almost everything to a stop. Deals that were almost closed, arrived to the signature; the ones under negotiation are stretching the talks while the new demand has almost frozen. Some asset class appears to be more resilient, such as the supermarkets and the I&L (thanks to the good performance of the e-commerce). On the contrary, others suffered strongly such as the hotels (the first ones to be affected by the crisis) and the shopping centres.

However, in crisis times, new opportunities are starting to be outlined. For example, the office market will change strongly, giving room for value added operations in the coming months in order to create the adapted product for tomorrow’s offices. Finally, the residential market has focused all the attention of the people and could become a new real asset class in the recovery.