Harrison Street, the specialist alternative real assets manager, has established a JV with Swiss real estate group, Artisa, seeded with the acquisition of Viale Monza, a 260-unit residential asset in Milan, Italy.
The newly formed JV is expected to scale over time as it invests in Italian living opportunities, with an initial focus on Northern Italy. The pair is looking for the acquisition of ground-up developments as well as the refurbishment and repositioning of existing commercial buildings, offering state-of-the-art living options to the chronically undersupplied Italian market.
Upon completion, Viale Monza will be managed by City Pop, an experienced living operator from Switzerland. City Pop currently manages a portfolio of apartments across Switzerland and Germany, and plans to continue to expand its management to additional properties in Italy and the Czech Republic.
Paul Bashir, Harrison Street CEO, called Artisa a 'high-quality operating partner with a strong track record' in the living sector.
'We look forward to growing the portfolio and relationship over time. Italy has the second largest unmet student demand in Europe, with a significant undersupply of purpose-built student assets. We’re pleased to meet that demand with Viale Monza, which signifies Harrison Street’s entry into the Italian residential and PBSA sector,' he said.
Flavio Petraglio, CEO of Artisa, noted that the JV was 'validation of the company's European positioning', affirming its commitment to extend beyond Switzerland.
Viale Monza is located steps away from the metro station into the city centre, with the first phase of approximately 77 units to be delivered in spring 2024 and the second phase expected to be fully completed by Q4 2024.
Italy is one of the countries within the G7 with the strongest growth after the pandemic, relatively low unemployment rates in key regions and early indications that inflation is starting to moderate.
The residential market in Italy is undersupplied and follows the same demographic trends as other major European markets. Milan has 218,000 students of whom 10.8% are internationals.
It has a limited privately managed state of the art Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) sector and the majority of PBSA is owned by public entities.
