EIB Grants €34 Million Loan to Support Social Housing in Milan’s Sarpi District

EIB Grants €34 Million Loan to Support Social Housing in Milan’s Sarpi District

(IN BRIEF) The European Investment Bank (EIB) has provided a €34 million loan to the Ca’ Granda Fund, managed by Investire SGR, to support the construction of new social housing units in central Milan. Over 200 apartments in the Sarpi district will be demolished and rebuilt to high energy efficiency and environmental sustainability standards. These housing units will be allocated to the “intermediate bracket” of the population, bridging the gap between free-market and public housing access. The project aims to revitalize the area and enrich the social mix in Milan’s city center. This marks the EIB’s first direct financing operation with a real estate fund for social housing, aligning with environmental and ethical goals.

(PRESS RELEASE) LUXEMBOURG, 28-Nov-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Supporting the construction of new social housing units in the centre of Milan and promoting access to quality, sustainable housing for low and middle-income families are the main objectives of the €34 million loan granted by the EIB to the Ca’ Granda Fund, managed by Investire SGR (Banca Finnat Group) and owned by Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, CDP Real Asset SGR (through Fondo Investimenti per l’Abitare, FIA) and Fondazione Cariplo.

Thanks to EIB financing, more than 200 apartments will be refurbished in the Sarpi district of central Milan. The housing units will be demolished and rebuilt according to the highest standards of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability and will then be assigned to the “intermediate bracket” of the population that is unable to access either the free market or public housing. The project will have a significant impact on the revitalisation and urban regeneration of the area, enriching the social mix in the city centre.

This is the EIB’s first direct financing operation with a real estate fund in support of social housing, made possible in part thanks to Policlinico di Milano’s ethical goals and strong commitment to environmental sustainability: the Cà Granda Fund was established to ensure that the values of solidarity and social inclusion that form the bedrock of Fondazione Policlinico’s real estate portfolio would endure.

Over the past five years, the EIB has financed more than €6.5 billion of low-cost social housing projects in 11 European countries, supporting new constructions and the renovation and refurbishment of existing housing assets.

This operation confirms the EU climate bank’s commitment to promote sustainable social housing, the targets defined in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan and those of REPowerEU, which the EIB has pledged to support with €45 billion in additional funding between 2022 and 2027.

The financing operation was announced and signed this morning at the Historical Archive of Policlinico di Milano located at 28 Via Francesco Sforza during the event “The accelerating partnership of urban and social regeneration”. Among the speakers were Director for EIB operations in Italy Gilles Badot, President of Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano Marco Giachetti, CEO of CDP Real Asset SGR Giancarlo Scotti, General Manager of Fondazione Cariplo Sergio Urbani, and CEO of Investire SGR Dario Valentino.

Director for EIB operations in Italy Gilles Badot stated: “With this operation, the EIB demonstrates its commitment to social housing, helping to provide low-cost housing for families in Milan. This project will not only improve the quality of life of residents, but will also help to enhance energy efficiency and thus environmental sustainability.”

CEO of CDP Real Asset SGR Giancarlo Scotti said: “We particularly welcome the financing provided by the EIB to the Ca’ Granda Fund, of which we are a financial partner via our FIA fund. This EU funding, alongside the support we receive from domestic institutional investors, confirms that there is a joint commitment to projects that can ease the housing crisis in our cities, including through urban regeneration and social inclusion.

CEO of Investire SGR Dario Valentino remarked: “The Ca’ Granda Fund, created following the transfer of Policlinico di Milano’s real estate assets, gives back to Milan many times over what has been received down through the centuries thanks to Milan residents’ generosity in gratitude for the services provided by the hospital, so catalysing the domestic resources of the FIA fund managed by CDP Real Asset SGR and activating the sustainable finance of the EIB. The initiative confirms once again Investire’s considerable capacity for structuring complex financial transactions with a high social impact.”

Background information

The European Investment Bank (EIB) finances projects in four priority areas: infrastructure, innovation, climate and environment, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Between 2019 and 2022, the EIB Group provided €45 billion in financing for projects in Italy.

CDP Real Asset SGR Spa is a savings management company whose capital has, since its establishment, been 70%-held by CDP Spa and 30%-held in equivalent shares by ACRI (Foundations of banking origin) and ABI (trade association of Italian banks). It manages closed-end alternative investment funds reserved for professional investors in four sectors — Social housing: FIA (Fondo Investimenti per l’Abitare), and FNAS (Fondo Nazionale dell’Abitare Sociale); Urban development and regeneration: FIV (Fondo Investimenti per la Valorizzazione), and Fondo Sviluppo; Tourism: FNT (Fondo Nazionale del Turismo); Infrastructure: FoF Infrastrutture.

Investire SGR is one of Italy’s leading operators in the asset management sector with over 50 real estate funds under management (AUM of around €7 billion), and is a benchmark in Italy in the social housing asset class with 11 active platforms dedicated to projects and territorial stakeholders supporting the national investment programme of Fondo Investimenti per l’Abitare (managed by CDPI SGR) worth over €1.1 billion dedicated mainly to fixed-rent leasing and urban regeneration.

Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, better known as Policlinico di Milano, has a broad spectrum of excellence across multiple disciplines of healthcare. Founded in 1456, it is one of the oldest hospitals in Italy. In its six centuries of activity it has made history in the field of medicine, foreshadowing innovations to come, forever in step with the times. Its mission has always been oriented towards integrating care with research and training: it is a scientific institute for hospitalisation, healthcare and medical assistance, in addition to which it carries out biomedical and health research with clinical and translational purposes, concerning the rapid transfer of therapies from laboratories to the patient’s bed. The Health Ministry has recognised Policlinico di Milano as Italy’s leading public institute for the quantity and quality of its scientific production. Lastly, thanks to the important role it plays in the city of Milan, it has an international dimension that is prospering thanks to its medical and scientific relations with the top research centres worldwide.

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SOURCE: European Investment Bank