Data centres, retail and hotels drive, but the market is more selective
Increased operations
A 2025 beyond expectations and an equally robust first quarter of 2026. This is the picture of the real estate market in Italia as seen through the lens of investment volumes.
With EUR 12.4 billion in total investments, the national real estate sector in 2025 recorded its highest figure in the last six years (and with EUR 4.3 billion, the last quarter was the best in the last four years). Compared to 2024, this is an increase of 23% for the annual figure and 25% for the fourth quarter alone.
However, the Milan market between 2024 and 2026 experienced a phase of profound uncertainty due to judicial investigations involving numerous urban redevelopment projects.
"The issue of stopped construction sites is a worrying one, which affects a medium and medium-high residential segment. It must be tackled without wasting any more time. In spite of everything, the real estate market in Italia, and especially in Milan," explained Guido Alberto Inzaghi, founder of the eponymous Studio Inzaghi (SI), "is still a dynamic market. In many areas, demand clearly exceeds supply, and the built environment often requires redevelopment operations. For foreign investors, Italia is a market with prices that are still very competitive compared to Northern Europe, France, Great Britain or Germany. And for us, in the absence of large (in terms of size) urban regeneration projects, they focus on niche segments, with more certain timeframes and guaranteed returns, such as student halls, data centres, hotels'.
"Southern Europe, Italia, Spain and Portugal, remains the quadrant that is performing best in real estate," explained Olaf Schmit, head of Dla Piper's real estate desk. "Spain is becoming expensive and many operators are looking more interested in Italia. The asset classes on the rise are, without a doubt, data centres (after the Tier 1 markets have reached saturation point), logistics (where supply remains short of demand) and hotels, where there is a growing tendency for foreign operators to purchase decadent 3-star hotels from their owners, in order to relaunch and reposition them as boutique hotels. In addition,' Schmidt concluded, 'interest remains intact for student halls and especially shopping centres, with new investors (e.g. from South Africa) looking at returns of up to 9.5 per cent.
