Italian Healthcare Snapshot 2023

Key takeaways:

• Increasing demand for long term nursing homes in the coming years | An aging population, longer life expectancy, declining average number of family members and greater job mobility will support demand for long term nursing homes in the coming years.
• Specialised operators are more focused | The Italian nursing home market is increasingly privatised, shifting from a former public or non-profit organization predominance. The post Covid-19 era might see an acceleration of this process and consolidation of some groups.
• Shortages in supply | Market supply is still very limited in Italy, with many regions still far from striking a good balance between supply and demand, although the development activity is fervid. This means that the market has room for high quality offer focused on wellbeing and services, affordability and inclusion.
• Healthcare as a defensive asset class | The market outlook is heavily influenced by economic uncertainty. Investors will continue to view the Healthcare sector as a defensive asset class with interest. Furthermore, inflation has cooled down, as have construction costs, reducing pressure on operating margins in the sector on the development front.

From a Real Estate capital markets perspective, the healthcare sector has been growing consistently over the last couple of years, bringing in new investors, operators and developers throughout Europe and Italy.

In Italy 2022 healthcare investments recorded almost €400 M while 2023 saw a decrease mainly due to the general overall volume slowdown, with around €150 M invested. In 2023 the dominant sub-sector was represented by Clinics and Medical Offices.