Investment Management

Sustainability, as a distinctive and qualifying factor, is a central element of the value chain for COIMA, and is integrated into the investment strategy on the basis of quantitative and measurable indicators. This approach, in an increasingly selective and polarized market, contributes to resilience to economic cycles while preserving performance for investors.

Gabriele Bonfiglioli

Chief Investment Officer

COIMA is tackling the uncertainty of the current market context with a clearly defined investment strategy based on bottom-up criteria for analysis of both location and product, leveraging the gaps in the Italian market and longtime structural trends that are transforming the real estate sector. ESG criteria are structurally integrated in COIMA’s investment process by means of quantitative analysis tools, aiming to create resilient, sustainable value.

The pandemic has accelerated structural transformation trends impacting the real estate sector, generating major shocks. In the office sector, hybrid working patterns have become a structural factor in companies’ organisation, transforming demand, which is favouring “quality rather than quantity”, as businesses opt for marginal reductions in space while modernising their premises to improve accessibility, visibility, sustainability and employee wellbeing. These new trends are leading to an increasing polarisation in demand, focused on Grade A buildings with sustainability certification, located in attractive, easily accessible office areas.

There are also major changes in the residential sector, with the need for innovative, integrated solutions to meet the new requirements on the demand side. Transport will evolve towards sustainability for both passengers and goods, which will become more and more important given the sharp expansion in logistics and e-commerce. The tourism sector will require investment to increase its global competitiveness, with a rise in the penetration of international operators and brands.
Italy still has to recover a large gap in investment and urban regeneration in all asset classes compared to other European countries. The rapid evolution of these structural trends, combined with the gaps visible in the Italian real estate market, offers interesting investment opportunities for strategies that aim to create sustainable value in the long term through regeneration projects, guaranteeing protection against short-term market uncertainties and fluctuations.

The fact that the real estate sector is responsible for a very large proportion of consumption of natural resources and energy at the global level, directly and indirectly contributing to a substantial portion of atmospheric CO2 emissions, is now well established (specifically, it is estimated that buildings and the construction industry account for about 40% of global CO2 emissions30).

The green transition is therefore becoming a more and more crucial issue for property investments, as obsolete and unsustainable buildings are increasingly losing value. Aware of this, COIMA has always aimed to create a property portfolio with high sustainability standards.

COIMA’s investment strategy reaches beyond the single building to embrace entire city neighbourhoods, integrating ESG principles in the economic, social and environmental model of every real estate development, setting measurable objectives and reporting them transparently.

30Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (2021), “2021 Global status report for buildings and construction”

Capitale finanziario