Milan, housing plan without operators: 'The accounts do not stand up'
Among the new features is the valorisation of existing public buildings. Five neighbourhoods to be dedicated to green spaces and offices have been removed from the draft
by Sara Monaci
The Milan Housing Plan, which envisages 10,000 homes in social housing to be built over a ten-year period, has not received any response from the market, neither from the large urban redevelopment groups nor from the long-awaited cooperative world. Except for one exception, that of the 33 flats to be built in Via Demostene, in Municipal District 2. For this area, the coop Uniabita has submitted an offer considered coherent.
For the rest, it is something of a washout, which inevitably leads one to say that the plan signed by former Housing Councillor Guido Bardelli and then amended by Budget Councillor Emmanuel Conte (who has since taken over the sector's delegations) did not lead to the hoped-for results, because, say the operators, the spaces for co-planning were reduced.
Let's recapitulate: in October 2024 the City Council opened the first two expressions of interest to sound out the market, regarding the first eight areas potentially interested in urban redevelopment aimed at social housing. In May the expressions of interest closed with 24 applications. An abundant number, at first glance. But after a few months the problem emerged: only the one in via Demostene meets the parameters required by the City Council, i.e. 65% of the housing to be dedicated to social housing (with an indicative cost for tenants of 400 euro for 60 square metres). Now the first call for bids for this district must be opened by the end of November, to see if there are other offers, in accordance with the principle of competition. But the rest is still at a standstill.
The Plan's basic idea remains that of building flats to rent for those with a salary of between 1,500 and 2,500 euro, considering that the cost of a rent (as well as a mortgage) should not exceed one third of the family income. But this 'cold' response from the property market is forcing Palazzo Marino to review the parameters and confront reality. Of course, the 'strong public direction' is reaffirmed, Conte emphasises, but the risk is that there is a director without actors.
The most critical are the operators of the cooperatives: "Having blown up the co-design, the offer has become less interesting. Initially there was a stake, which was the 80 euro per square metre, for the rest we could propose solutions, given that we have fixed financial burdens. But the costs for reclamation and urbanisation charges are not clear to us, and for us the relationship between social housing and the free market risks making us stand out," says Pierpaolo Forello, president of Uniabita.
