There is much to be done and there are many areas of expertise that have to be drawn for those involved in property development for residential use. Competence is required in the fields of town planning, architecture, as well as in the assessment of client needs, who in this case being private individuals require detailed information on all aspects. Ginvest spa is in possession of all the required competence in the areas of planning, construction capacity and sales and marketing through Guffanti A S.p.A., whose resources are fully available to the companies in the group for the purposes of property development. The market trend over the last few years has been towards leasing rather than purchasing, leading Guffanti A. S.p.A. to develop particular competence and IT systems in this area for the automated management of repetitive processes associated with leasing real property to large numbers of lessees.
It could seem paradoxical but the most innovative area for real property investments is at present that of residential leasing. A country like Italy, where the people traditionally prefers to own their own homes, is going through a process of transformation, especially socially, leading many of our residential customers to opt now to rent rather than purchase of their homes. It is a trend that has already been seen for many years in the English-speaking world and in northern Europe, and it is now spreading in Italy. A critical factor is the proximity of Switzerland to the north and Milan to the south in a geographic area that is dominated by the residential market, an area that strongly attracts immigration characterised by qualified professional and medium to high income earners, and we have been able to ride this particular demand trend wave from its very beginnings. We have over these years acquired and honed our expertise in the residential leasing sector, one which demands specialist knowledge and management skills. This has enabled us to invest personally, and to lend our competence, and organisational and management skills to the service of institutional and private investors wanting to diversify into this promising new asset class.
