House, in Milan the average price reaches 6,000 euro per square metre

From a city that after Expo 2015 earned itself a prominent place in the European showcase to a fortress of millionaires returning to the country and foreign fortunes who choose it as their base. Milan has changed face and this face many no longer like.

It is first and foremost the real estate market that is dictating new rules, with housing prices constantly rising and rents no longer sustainable for those categories that must necessarily turn to the world of renting. Milan now ranks among international cities, maintains an attraction that attracts young students, workers, managers and entrepreneurs, and constantly renews its commercial offer (more than cultural perhaps). All characteristics that put it in common with the big European metropolises such as Paris, London, Madrid and Berlin.

"The shining side brings with it the difficulty of buying a house, the displacement of the economically fragile into the suburbs and outlying areas," emphasises Mario Breglia, president of Scenari Immobiliari. Today average prices in the periphery, in neighbourhoods such as Bovisa, Dergano or the Lodi area, are around 4,500 euro per square metre and more. A two-room apartment costs no less than 250,000/300,000 euro. For a single person or a young couple, these are unaffordable figures if there are no parents behind them ready to pay a hefty portion in cash.

If we look at house purchase values, the average price in the semicentre - Scenari Immobiliari data - has gone from around 2,000 euro/sq.m. (revalued) in 1996 to over 6,000 euro/sq.m. today, with peaks steadily exceeding 11,000 euro in the historic centre. In the case of prestigious properties, the price range for new or renovated properties is between 7,000 and 12,300 euro per square metre, with peaks of 27,000 euro in the Quadrilatero and Brera areas.

There is a lack of attention to the weaker categories, to those workers, from nurses to the police force, from firefighters to office workers, who struggle to pay the instalments of amortgage for a house or the rent, which by now hardly ever falls below one thousand euros per month, even in suburban areas. Ten years ago in central London's Westmister district, entire office buildings became residential with studios built just for workers. "Only public policies can turn public properties into mini-apartment buildings to give to those who do not have enough income," says Breglia.