Protagonists

Social housing, a challenge involving public and private sectors

Among the topics of the affordable housing debate is the increasing involvement of companies

29 May 2025

Milan aerial panoramic view. Milan is a capital of Lombardy and the second most populous city in Italy.

4' min read

Trust, alignment between the various actors, solidarity, housing support, cooperation, commitment: these are the key words on which not only social housing, but also and above all city policies must be based. Because a city that fails to retain young people and the middle class, deteriorates. This is what emerged during the debate No Need to Leave: affordable Milan, as part of the international city making festival Utopian hours, in which Lombardini 22 launched a reflection on new housing policies and the challenges facing cities.

Taking Milan, in 2025 those living there will spend more than 40% of their salary on rent or mortgage. An unsustainable expense for students and young workers, two categories attracted by the city but unable to stay because of the high housing costs. "Leaving a whole slice of the market uncovered causes, in perspective, economic problems," said Juri Franzosi, general manager of Lombardini 22. What we have done is to start from the need of this slice of the market and go backwards, understanding what can be done and what cannot. Public funds are lacking, the wealth is in the hands of the private sector, and it is this wealth that we must activate'.

"The key word,' he continued, 'is trust. A fragmented production system struggles to work together and build a new model. I don't believe that we will have public finance and market conditions that will allow us to overcome the housing shortage, as happens abroad: it means that we have to find an Italian formula'.

The point is to change mentality: a house designed not to be a home for life, but a place of passage, allowing those who live there to grow and settle in. "The product we have to make is a house 'that allows you to', which is therefore temporary. In this way we are able to connect the unitised heritage with housing needs, but to do this we have to create a model that is able to attract private investment, with significant volumes of capital".

One way to act is to collaborate with companies. Intercept those companies that struggle to find young workers precisely because of the high housing costs the latter would have to bear. This, for example, is what Nhood, a real estate solutions company that is carrying out the urban redevelopment project of the Ravone-Prati railway yard in Bologna, is trying to do. 'In addition to working with banks and cooperatives, we have also involved Confindustria,' explained Carlo Masseroli, the company's manager. The proposal we made to the companies is to buy the housing at EUR 3,800 per square metre, and then use it as a welfare tool to find accommodation for their workers and attract talent. This will trigger a mechanism to activate private capital'.

The obstacle, however, is still the public-private relationship. To the costs of the area must be added the construction costs, which have risen not a little since Covid, and the urbanisation charges. Not to mention the time that can elapse for authorisations, which can block capital for six to seven years. "If the investor is welcoming, he will make me sell the flats at 4 thousand euro per square metre," continues Masseroli. "That means a thousand euro a month rent, which is not sustainable with a first graduate's salary. The key word is alignment, which must be done both between public and private players.

Abroad, virtuous is the case of Paris. Among the many projects, the example of Clichy-Batignolles stands out as a successful experiment: 145 social houses in the city centre, with a project largely bordered by the city administration and large public spaces. "These interventions abroad still work very well, despite increases in building costs, because there is non-repayable financing and loans at very low rates," said Giordana Ferri, executive director of the Social Housing Foundation. Moreover, the public-private contraposition does not exist, everything is realised in great collaboration with the municipality. In the same intervention we make flats for sale at high prices and social flats. Something that we struggle to do, partly because in Italy there is a lot of mistrust towards the private sector. Milan has taken a step forward in this sense, but we still need to think of preferential routes that facilitate the approval process, because if a project takes six years to be realised it discourages investors. We need to go deeper, to have the strength to really work on ideas, to make sure they are not just slogans'.

In addition to the shortage of affordable housing, another phenomenon that is spreading through the cities is gentrification, which alienates the middle class. "This is unfortunate, because the city is losing its social class mix. To make interventions that work, however, you need strong public direction: they have to be strategic choices by the municipality. The key word is cooperation between the various players,' explained Andrea De Maio, head of development management at Investire Sgr.

But the thrust is also social, as well as real estate: Homes4All, a Benefit company founded at the beginning of 2020 that aims to intervene on the issue of housing hardship. "As of today we have 170 members, with shares from 500 euro upwards (the right to vote is for those with shares over 50 thousand)," said president Giorgio Mosci. "For us the key word is solidarity: what we do is also to accompany families in finding a solution.

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