Mansard roof, attics and garrets and the convenience of investment in order to contain land consumption

The enhancement of mansard roof, attics and garrets is a prominent element in the real estate market and it is going to become increasingly important. The problem of land consumption leads to make use of building spaces that are already available such as attics and lofts; furthermore, in the main Italian cities new planning regulations offer the possibility to increase the building volume in case of energy refurbishment. The research, carried out by Politecnico di Milano, analyses innovative architectural solutions in the enhancement of mansard roof and the convenience of investment in this field compared to other real estate asset classes in order to contain land consumption. The aim is to identify: a. best practices (both new construction and refurbishment of attics), b. the intervention costs, c. the market value of the recovered space (loft or attic) in relation to other units of the building. The research is divided into the following phases: 1. Overview of the Italian attics market. This part presents the state of art of the Italian housing market in relation with the opportunity and convenience of the attics refurbishment. In particular, the market analysis (size, cost, time of sale, etc.) shows the comparison among different geographical areas (regions, provinces, city centres, suburbs). 2. Search for innovative design solutions and analysis of best practices. 3. Investment convenience in lofts and attics refurbishment compared to other types of investment in urban regeneration projects. For this purpose, about 200 designers working on the entire national territory and some major players in the Italian Real Estate market were interviewed. The data demonstrate that the attics express the highest values per square meter in the Italian residential market. Furthermore, the research shows that a family that wants to invest in an attic may realize a significant gain if they decide to refurbish and sell the property in a short time. The research tries to raise operators’ awareness in order to limit the land consumption, to improve existing buildings, to revitalize cities and the historical centres.