Even in times of Covid, the big foreign funds invest in and reward the Larian resorts, with returns stable at 4% per year. Milan, with City Life and its new skyscrapers, stops at 3%.
Como and its marvellous lake, loved and known all over the world, is confirmed as an asset of refuge even during the current pandemic. Considered a real estate gem, Lake Como is among the one hundred most sought-after residential locations in the world. Only the magnificent Venice has managed to surpass the Larian resorts, but what bodes well is that the percentage is calculated by analysing the offer and taking into account the revaluation of luxury market prices per square metre.
And so villas on Lake Como have once again proved to be an excellent investment, capable of appreciating by 4% in 2020 despite Italy being the first country in the West to go into lockdown. This is better than the neighbourhoods of Milan such as City Life, which are in thirty-ninth place with a price per square metre of 3%. Evidently for real estate funds and the super select clientele of tycoons, who can afford to collect villas and resorts in the most beautiful corners of the world. Como and its lake continue to be a point of reference, even if the pandemic has also weighed on the luxury real estate market, at least in terms of perception, with locations such as Auckland, the capital of New Zealand, jumping to the top of the charts, where property prices have risen by 17.5%, precisely because of the very low level of contagion.
Covid has also helped widen the gap between the super-rich and the rest of the population. The group of “paperhounds” with personal assets of over 30 million dollars increased by 2.4% to 520,000 people, with the prospect of exceeding 663,000 by the end of 2025. They have been the driving force behind the real estate market over the last ten years, with a 9% increase in investments that has offset the 6% drop in public investment. This trend is expected to continue in 2022, with at least a third of the rich saying they are ready to invest in the real estate market, which is considered a safe haven. In addition to luxury villas, the search for investments favours building land, logistics and residential properties.
The most sought-after locations on the lake from a real estate point of view are Bellagio, Cernobbio, Laglio, Moltrasio and Carate Urio, where it is impossible to find a newly built property for less than 4 thousand euros per square metre. The highest values in the entire province, however, are recorded on another lake, Ceresio, and more precisely in Campione d’Italia, where a newly built villa costs 6 thousand euros per square metre and a flat costs no less than 5 thousand euros per metre. These prices are more in line with the Swiss property market than the Italian one.
