Italy Real Estate News

Pirelli RE 9-mth loss widens, hikes savings goal

2009-11-04T16:05:00.000+02:00

MILAN, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Italy's Pirelli & C Real Estate SpA (PCRE.MI) posted a wider nine-month net loss on Wednesday, as restructuring costs and writedowns weighed, and raised its savings target for 2009. The net loss widened to 57.9 million euros ($85.37 million) from 12.9 million euros a year earlier. That was less than two analysts' forecasts for a loss of 63 million euros and 70 million euros. Income fell 33 percent to 199 million euros, Pirelli RE, a unit of industrial group Pirelli & C SpA (PECI.MI), said.

Pirelli RE upped its full-year cost savings target to 65 million euros, from 50 million euros, after booking 47 million euros up to September.

It also reiterated its full-year forecast for earnings before interest and tax. At 1222 GMT, Pirelli RE shares were up 2.1 percent at 0.5350 euros, little changed after the results.

Tuscan Real Estate Slows Down

2009-09-06T08:08:00.000+03:00

The market for luxury residences in Tuscany has hit a rough patch for the first time since the euro doubled the cost of property — and of nearly everything else, too — almost a decade ago. While "la crisi," a nickname for the global financial crisis, has not affected Tuscany's real estate market as deeply as it has hit parts of France and the whole of Spain, the area is experiencing its own, softer slide.

Across Tuscany, closing prices in the luxury sector have fallen 10 to 20 percent from where they were two years ago, according to four agents who work around the region. In neighboring Umbria, Mr. Dragoni said, prices have dropped as much as ¤1,000, or $1,400, per square meter, from a peak of ¤4,000.

Italy real estate to grow at end 2010

2009-08-06T01:56:00.000+03:00

MILAN, July 21 (Reuters) - The Italian real estate market has stabilised but growth will have to wait until the end of 2010 at the earliest, the chief executive of Italy's Beni Stabili (BNSI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) Aldo Mazzocco said on Tuesday.

"We are playing in defence but we're glad to do that since most of our European competitors are playing (behind) the goal (line)," Mazzocco said speaking at an analyst presentation.

Mazzocco said he expects conditions on the Italian property market to remain tough in the coming months, adding he sees the second half of the year in line with the first half with the same kind of buyer - families and private investors.

But if the market has perhaps steadied "we won't see the first signs of growth before the end of 2010, early 2011", he said.

For Sale in ... Florence

2009-07-15T10:42:00.000+03:00

Italy’s residential property market has seen price reductions of between 10 and 20 percent in the economic downturn, said Rupert Fawcett, head of the Italian department for Knight Frank, a research company.

Sales volumes were down in late 2008 and early 2009, but have started to recover, Mr. Fawcett said, and foreign owners were more likely to sell their Italian properties than Italian owners, partly because weakened currencies in the United States and Britain made it an attractive time to sell foreign holdings.

In Florence, buyers looking for apartments to use as vacation homes tend to look in the city center, called the Centro Storico, Mr. Fawcett said. For houses and villas, popular second home neighborhoods are to be found in the hills surrounding Florence, such as Bellosguardo, Fiesole and Impruneta. Daniela Gisti, the business development manager for Precious Villas, a real estate firm with offices in Florence and London, said the hillside village of Settignano is known as the Beverly Hills of Florence.

International Real Estate: Italy, Spain and Portugal properties

2009-06-29T22:21:00.000+03:00

Every month, Mondinion.com releases statistics about searches performed on the site by visitors and potential buyers / renters. In May 2009, the top searched countries were: Philippines, Italy, Spain, United States, Mexico, India, Portugal and France.

"As the holiday period is coming, more and more buyers and investors are looking for popular vacation destinations such as Spain (especially Marbella, Barcelona, Alicante) - http://www.mondinion.com/Real_Estate/country/Spain/, Italy (the always popular Toscana and Sicilia) - http://www.mondinion.com/Real_Estate/country/Italy/ and Portugal - http://www.mondinion.com/Real_Estate/country/Portugal/. Other overseas real estate destinations are Philippines, Mexico, India and Brazil.", commented Zoltan A. Baranyai, Founder of Mondinion.com.

Campari? Crostini? Step Into My Umbrian Estate

2009-06-20T17:21:00.000+03:00

I’m so at home that I invite the real owner of the Montagnola estate, Vittoria Iraci Borgia, along with Carmela Guzzo, her factotum-cum-culinary-magician, and their families to elaborate multicourse feasts. When they arrive, bearing lovely gifts for the hostess, my friends and I sweep out to welcome them, the picture of gracious beneficence. We proffer Campari-vodka-grapefruit juice aperitivos, along with crostini alla Romana and arancini before moving on to the main feast as the sun starts to set.

Global recession? What global recession? If you don’t count discretionary spending (read eight pairs of shoes from the Prada outlet in Montevarchi), my dolce vita sojourn is cheaper than a week at many beach houses stateside. For 2,400 euros (about $3,400 at $1.42 to the euro) for the whole week, we rent the six-bedroom (each with private bathroom) Caprareccia, the simply furnished, staggeringly beautiful hilltop jewel of La Montagnola’s rental offerings.

Italy's Assilea sets standard clauses for real estate leasing contracts

2009-06-12T10:59:00.000+03:00

Italy’s leasing association Assilea and the Notary Council of Milan have jointly set the future standard clauses for real estate leasing contacts.

Following a series of legislative changes in the last three years, the leasing association and the Notary Council decided to strengthen their cooperation which started back in 2005 and make clauses uniform and more transparent.

The standard clauses concern the purchase of property to be leased, the sale of property already under a lease agreement, the leaseback of property, and the purchase of land on which to build property which will subsequently be leased.

Assilea said that the initiative will “slim down and speed up” notaries’ deeds of real estate leasing operations and make the market “more competitive and transparent”.

Italian real estate portal Homes and Villas Abroad.com expands into Calabria

2009-05-22T19:33:00.000+03:00

Homes and Villas Abroad.com has recently engaged an eight-member sales team to spearhead its Calabria operations – four of whom will work on and around the Ionian seaboard on the east and the other four of whom will be based on the opposite Tyrrhenian coast.

The expansion will see it enter into partnerships with a number of Calabria real estate companies, allowing Homes and Villas Abroad.com to showcase an even greater range of Calabria property for sale to suit all tastes and budgets, from Euro 50,000 beach apartments to majestic villas costing Euro 1million and over.

Homes and Villas Abroad.com marketing manager Ainsley Okoro said: "Foreign tourism has really taken off in Calabria in recent years, and with 500 miles of beautiful shores and year-round sunshine that comes as little surprise.

Major fraud scheme in Italy real estate uncovered

2009-05-17T15:06:00.000+03:00

The fraud investigation unit of the Tax Office, the FIOD, has uncovered a major fraud case involving property investments in Italy. The independent supervisory authority for savings, investment and insurance markets (AFM) had reported WSM, a property and project development company, to the Tax Office, claiming that WSM did not conform to the standards set by AFM.

WSM offered to invest in Italian real estate on behalf of 130 private investors. The financial supervisory authority suspected that return on investment was paid with money from new investors. It is estimated that up to ten million euros have been paid by private investors to WSM. The FIOD made two arrests in Amsterdam and Hilversum, after conducting searches in private homes.

Embattled Kelly in talks with Anglo to save property portfolio

2009-05-11T01:15:00.000+03:00

The developer has 40-plus partnerships in Ireland and overseas, and is involved in projects with total debts of more than €2 billion.

The complexity of the deals has prompted Anglo to hold off from moving on Kelly’s various businesses. While many of the projects he backed are not in difficulty, he is understood to be facing particular problems with a $1 billion scheme in Florida. He also backed Tulfarris House & Golf Resort in Wicklow and the Thomas Read group of pubs and restaurants, both of which are in receivership.

Anglo recently seized the assets of the Dublin company behind Pragelato Village, a €100 million, five-star ski resort in northern Italy that was backed by Kelly.

Mafia linked property seized

2009-05-05T16:42:00.000+03:00

Italian police said on Tuesday they have seized more than 300 million euros (400 million dollars) in real estate and funds from 13 suspected members of the Sicilian Mafia who were arrested in 2007.

The 13 include Salvatore Biondino, 56, who was the driver of former Cosa Nostra supremo Toto Riina, Palermo financial police said in a statement.

Riina, arrested in 1993, is serving multiple life prison terms.

The investigation codenamed Scanner involved some 70 businesses, and the "seized property represented the illegal fruit of Mafia activities," it said.

The property includes land, villas, apartments, companies, business facilities and bank accounts, it added.

Italy Seizes Millions in Assets From Four Banks

2009-04-30T11:10:00.000+03:00

The Guardia di Finanza in Milan, the financial police of Italy, took over real estate properties, bank accounts and stock holdings on Monday to assure it could collect from the banks if their officials were found guilty and the banks were held responsible.

The seizures stem from the banks’ handling of a $2.2 billion municipal bond issue and related financial contracts known as swaps that Milan undertook to retire other debt in June 2005. The lead prosecutor accused the bankers of misleading the city and falsely claiming that the deal would generate savings. If all the costs had been properly included, the prosecutor said, the entire deal would have been illegal under a national law that allows restructuring of debt only if it produces a savings.

Sicily tipped as one of the first to emerge when the property market recovers

2009-04-23T20:33:00.000+03:00

Sicily is the new Tuscany and could be the next hot spot in Europe when property investors start to look for bargains again.

The Italian island is known more for its Mafia connections than its property market but real estate is starting to open up as people become less concerned with holding onto the ancient family pile........

Pirelli RE says no plans to demerge real estate funds

2009-04-17T21:49:00.000+03:00

MILAN, April 14 (Reuters) - Italy's Pirelli & C REal Estate SpA said on Tuesday that it had no plans to demerge its real estate funds and sell them.

Pirelli RE, which is controlled by Pirelli & C SpA tyre group, was responding to a La Repubblica newspaper report that cited banking sources as saying a fund demerger was being studied as part of Pirelli RE's capital increase plan.

'Pirelli RE, for its part, denies categorically that operations or even plans of this type are under study,' the company said.

La Repubblica said on Tuesday that a possible option was for Assicurazioni Generali SpA, which is active in real estate, to acquire part of Pirelli RE's real estate funds, citing the banking sources.

Property in Tuscany and Umbria For Sale.

2009-04-15T18:33:00.000+03:00

Italian property prices expected to fall further in 2009

2009-04-13T20:29:00.000+03:00

Following the worsening of the international economic crisis, housing demand significantly dropped in Italy, but Italians continue to see property as a good medium-term investment, according to a new report.

The Italian property market is now suffering the consequences of the global economic crisis, but Italians still perceive housing as a reasonably safe investment and the sector is expected to recover in 2010, the report from economic intelligence company Nomisma indicates.

Analysts found that residential property sale volumes decreased by 15.1% in 2008. However, the drop was particularly marked in the last quarter of the year, after the deepening of the financial crisis eroded consumers' confidence, it says.

In the other property sectors office sales fell by 11.7% and the commercial real estate market saw decline of 8.7%.

Spazio Investment swings to FY loss

2009-04-11T23:34:00.000+03:00

March 26 (Reuters) - Spazio Investment NV (SPNV.L), an Italian property fund managed by Pirelli & C Real Estate (PECI.MI), swung to a full-year pretax loss mainly due to a fall in both the asset values and the fair value of financial instruments.

Spazio also scrapped final dividend for the second half.

The company expects a further fall in asset values in 2009 but a reasonable level of interest from local investors in its portfolio is expected to continue to provide some degree of protection, it said in a statement on Thursday.

Though the fall in commercial property values experienced to date in Italy is not as marked as in other European markets, the outlook for the Italian real estate sector and asset values remains uncertain, the company said.

Monte Paschi seeks capital-boosting property sale

2009-04-10T00:11:00.000+03:00

ROME, April 7 (Reuters) - Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) aims to boost its Core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio by as much as 0.5 percentage points through a sale of real estate on its books at 2.2 billion euros ($2.98 billion), a source close to the operation said.

"Monte Paschi's Core Tier 1 will rise by 40-50 basis points," based on a sale price for the assets of 2.6 billion to 2.8 billion euros, the source said.

Monte Paschi, which is being advised by Mediobanca (MDBI.MI), aims to close the operation by the end of June, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Monte Paschi currently has a Core Tier 1 ratio of 6.6 percent.

It is applying to use government-backed bonds to shore up the figure further, along with several other Italian banks.

Union Investment acquires shopping center in Italy

2009-04-03T12:25:00.000+03:00

Hamburg-based Union Investment Real Estate AG has acquired the "Monza" shopping center in Italy for its UniImmo: Deutschland open-ended real estate fund. Union Investment purchased the property from ImmobiliarEuropea S.p.A. for around EUR142.6 million. Advisors to the vendor were the real-estate agency CB Richard Ellis; Union Investment was advised by Jones Lang La Salle.

"Monza" has an attractive tenant base Open since August 2008, the shopping center is located roughly 1.5 kilometers to the northeast of downtown Monza and has around 28,000 square meters of rental space. Besides the shopping center, the development also includes a hotel, offices, and a public service hall. The hotel and the offices will be completed by Fall 2009.

Monza is located to the north of Milan and is the third-largest city in Lombardy, Italy's strongest economic region. With around 59 million consumers, Italy is one of western Europe's major retail markets.

Under our Tuscan sun

2009-04-01T00:07:00.000+03:00

CHIANTI, Italy -- On a cold winter day in 2007, my sister asked me if I'd like to join her on a trip to Tuscany. I didn't have to think long to give her my answer -- yes!

Now, 18 months later, we're on our way to Muricciaglia, our villa in Tuscany. After a couple of days in Umbria, we have decided to take the country roads, as opposed to the superstrada. This proves to be a slower route, but very rewarding. We get a feel for life in small-town Italy as we meander through villages and pass farmland with corn and sunflower fields on either side of the narrow roadway.

As we leave Umbria and enter Tuscany, we pass the hilled town of Cortona, which is famous from the movie Under The Tuscan Sun. That is in fact what got us interested in coming to Italy, but our villa beckons so we must remember Cortona as we saw it on film.

The countryside is subtly changing, with grapevines and olive groves now appearing and the road is beginning to twist and turn as we go upward into the hills.

Italian property to stabilise in 2010?

2009-03-29T09:39:00.000+03:00

Following the worsening of the international economic crisis, housing demand significantly dropped in Italy, but Italians continue to see property as a good medium-term investment...

The Italian property market is now suffering the consequences of the global economic crisis, but Italians still perceive housing as a reasonably safe investment and the sector is expected to recover in 2010. These findings come from the latest study by economic intelligence company Nomisma.

Nomisma researchers found that residential sale volumes decreased by 15.1 per cent in 2008. However, the drop was particularly marked in the last quarter of the year, after the deepening of the financial crisis eroded consumers' confidence.

Luxury Italian villas released by Calabrian property specialists

2009-03-24T18:58:00.000+02:00

A luxury homes developer has announced plans to build an Italian villa scheme dubbed ‘The Seven Wonders of the World’.

VFI Overseas Property released images and details of the plan, to appear in Soverato, Calabria, a region of southern Italy seeing a boom in new homes construction.

The gated community involves full-service villas with each property construction plan unique.

All the homes will involve four bedrooms and three bathrooms and the development overlooks a picturesque beach.

Two Billion Euro Luxury Project Near Milan In Financial Trouble

2009-03-23T10:02:00.000+02:00

An article from Bloomberg on Santa Giulia, a luxury project near Milan contains what just might be my favorite quote ever on developments gone bust.

James Rehlaender, managing director at European Investors Inc., says, "When prices started to peak, developers were like crack users and would use all the money that banks were throwing at them." Indeed, and it's as good an explanation as any for what has happened at Santa Giulia, a project that was to include luxury apartments designed by Norman Foster and boutiques from top Italian brands like Dolce & Gabbana as well as hotels, schools and a church that is now starting to look like yet another project that will never be completed.

Risanamento, Limitless Scrap EU475 Million Milan Deal

2009-03-21T20:30:00.000+02:00

March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Risanamento SpA, the Italian real- estate developer led by Luigi Zunino, said it’s no longer in talks with Dubai’s state-owned Limitless LLC about the sale of a Milan project for 475 million euros ($644 million).

“There are no longer negotiations for the asset sale,” after a December preliminary agreement to sell the development, in Sesto San Giovanni, expired, Milan-based Risanamento said in a statement late yesterday. It didn’t give a reason. A phone call by Bloomberg to Limitless in Dubai, where most businesses are closed today, went unanswered.

Risanamento slumped as much as 23 percent in Milan trading. The company, created in 2002 through a merger, is tapping 75 million euros in credit lines after amassing 2.6 billion euros in debt from buying offices and homes from Paris to Manhattan. The developer said Feb. 23 that it had used 44.1 million euros of the credit lines arranged in December with banks including Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and UniCredit SpA.

Pirelli to return to profit in 2009

2009-03-17T08:49:00.001+02:00

MILAN, March 16 (Reuters) - Pirelli & C (PECI.MI), the Italian holding company behind the tyre and real estate businesses of the same name, should end the year with a profit, its chairman said on Monday.

"We foresee the group as a whole closing 2009 with a profit," Marco Tronchetti Provera was quoted by a Pirelli spokeswoman as saying at a presentation in Milan.

"We are fairly optimistic that in 2009 things will change," he said. "The market is moving, the measures taken in 2008 and being carried out in 2009 are producing results."

In 2008, Pirelli ran a net loss of 412.5 million euros compared with a net profit of 323.6 million euros the previous year. The loss was the result of the cost of a major restructuring and a drop in the value of assets and investments in the face of the global crisis.