Aler Milano: profits mask the crisis – net assets at -619 million and payments to suppliers suspended

From an economic perspective, this positive result should be seen for what it is: the result of a business that is structurally loss-making, kept afloat by public funding.

Aler operates as an organisation that collects rent that is significantly lower than the costs of managing its housing stock. Over 75 per cent of the tenant population is located in the ‘protection’ and ‘access’ zones, with average monthly rents of €60.19 for 48.54 per cent of households in the ‘protection’ zone. As the Board notes, these revenues are ‘insufficient to ensure the organisation’s financial self-sufficiency’.

The shortfall is covered by regional grants: for 2025, the compensation payment for protection zone fees amounted to 2.57 million, to which a further grant of 10.79 million was added in the early months of 2026. Measures which the mayors consider ‘still far from sufficient to cover the actual cost of social services’.

Consequently, the continuity of the organisation is guaranteed only on condition that the Region supports Aler Milano in covering the shortfall in revenue due to rent arrears, supplementing rent payments and settling outstanding debts.

The audit firm BDO Italia has, however, issued an unqualified opinion on the financial statements, with an emphasis of matter specifically regarding going concern.

As regards arrears — a crucial factor for an organisation whose financial stability depends on revenue — the picture is mixed. The percentage of current arrears has fallen to 22.2%, an improvement on the figure of around 30% in 2024, and 2,362 debt recovery cases have been settled, representing a significant increase. However, the total volume of judicial arrears managed has reached €141.9 million, with 4,327 pending legal cases and a steady increase in court orders for payment (488) and third-party garnishments (477).

Above all, the two tender procedures to outsource the out-of-court recovery of debts — which had already been announced in the previous financial year’s conclusions and were deemed essential for managing the enormous volume of accumulated arrears — were only published towards the end of 2025 and were only finalised, with the award of the first tender, in the early months of 2026, whilst the second is still under consideration. In the 2025 financial year, therefore, they did not produce any tangible results. Levels of non-culpable arrears remain a cause for concern, with 1,065 claims of inability to pay still under investigation.

Among the few items of ‘own’ revenue are property disposals: in 2025, 183 out of the 200 properties put up for sale were sold, generating total revenue of approximately 34.4 million, with an average sale price 45 per cent higher than the auction reserve price. A solid commercial result, which, however, clashes with a regional decision: the suspension of authorisations for the sale of properties to the assignees.

Aler Milano’s workforce has fallen to 806 from 834 at the end of 2024, representing a shortfall of 163 compared with the Plan’s full-scale target (969): a structural understaffing which, in the Board’s view, ‘raises significant questions about the organisation’s operational capacity’.

The Board acknowledges some positive developments. In 2025, 1,320 vacant dwellings were brought back into use (a total of 4,693 units were reactivated across the various programmes); there was a fall in the number of established cases of unauthorised occupation (from 2,616 to 2,432 units); the percentage of cases detected in the act rose to 90 per cent and the number of contracts signed increased (658 compared with 555 in 2024).

But the Board’s final message is clear: for the going concern assumption to hold, the Lombardy Region and local authorities must guarantee “structural and ongoing support” sufficient to offset the shortfall in ordinary revenue and to enable the repayment of short-term debts owed to suppliers — currently the most pressing issue.

The mayors go so far as to propose a structural solution: the return of ownership of the properties to the Lombardy Region, with Aler being entrusted solely with the management of the assets. This is a proposal which the drafters themselves now acknowledge to be ‘fiscally unsustainable’ without specific regulatory exemptions.