Retail, in 2026 capital over 100 million for half of the investors

After years of slowdown, Italian retail real estate is back at the centre of investors' strategies. The year 2025 marks a turning point: the sector becomes the leading asset class in terms of investment volumes in the domestic real estate market and records the best historical result in terms of sentiment and operating performance.

According to the third edition of the Ey Retail Property Investments Barometer, carried out with the National Council of Shopping Centres (CNCC), 94% of operators express a positive or neutral assessment of the outlook for the next twelve months.

"The retail sector confirmed expectations and outperformed all other asset classes in 2025, signalling a market dynamic in strong recovery," observes Marco Daviddi, managing partner of EY-Parthenon in Italy, adding that "the renewed attention of investors derives from good asset management activity, especially in terms of reconfiguration of layouts and inclusion of new product categories".

Confidence translates into concrete financial commitments: around 50 per cent of investors plan to allocate more than EUR 100 million to retail in 2026, and 32 per cent plan more than EUR 200 million. In 2025, 97 per cent of respondents report stable or increasing performance of their assets, up from 80 per cent in the previous year, and for 45 per cent the increase exceeds 5 per cent.

Also for Roberto Zoia, president of Cncc, 'the results are not accidental, but reflect a long-term vision based on digitisation, energy efficiency and a new conception of the product mix, with increasingly close partnerships between landlords and tenants to attract the modern consumer'.