Milan's Via Monte Napoleone has surpassed New York and London as the most expensive shopping street in the world for the first time, as the Italian city benefits from an influx of wealthy tourists and fierce competition for luxury real estate among luxury brands, the Financial Times reports, UNN writes.
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The maximum rents that landlords can charge luxury high street retailers increased by 11 percent year-on-year to €20 ,000 per square meter per annum, the highest rents for stores among all 138 global retail destinations tracked by real estate group Cushman & Wakefield.
This is the first European city to top the list in 34 years.
Milan has seen an influx of big-spending tourists and a wave of moves from abroad, as professionals and the ultra-rich have been lured by generous tax incentive schemes.
Meanwhile, luxury retailers have stepped up competition for the most desirable locations, paying big bucks to buy or rent retail space.
Kering, the luxury group that owns Gucci and Alexander McQueen, paid €1.3 billion to acquire a building on Via Monte Napoleone from Blackstone in April, the largest real estate deal in Europe in two years.
Thomas Casolo, head of retail in Italy at Cushman & Wakefield, said that luxury brands "have invested a lot of money to have the best location... the problem is that there are few opportunities.
Chanel and Gucci opened new stores on Via Monte Napoleone last year. According to Cushman & Wakefield, rents on the street have increased by 30 percent over the past two years, while Fifth Avenue in New York City - previously the most expensive street - saw rent growth remain flat in 2024. New York City recovered quickly from the pandemic in 2022, but has grown more slowly since then.
Milan is comparatively smaller than London, Paris, or New York, with the main shopping outlets concentrated in one area around Via Monte Napoleone, which includes several streets.
"I think the reason why [rents] keep going up is because the street is very short compared to Fifth Avenue, the Champs Elysees or New Bond Street in London," Casolo said. - "Milan has grown very, very quickly in terms of investment and international brands wanting to open.
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The historically austere financial capital of Italy, Milan has recently become a popular destination for tax-free luxury buyers from outside the EU, global investors, and fashion and artistic figures.
2024 was a record year for tourism in the Lombardy region, which includes Lake Como, with more than 13 million arrivals in the first eight months of the year. Milan, the capital of the region, is now on track to surpass last year's record of 8.5 million visitors, experts say.
This popularity among the ultra-rich has led to a rise in real estate and hotel prices. This trend is having a chain reaction in prestigious locations in the historic center, where space for development is limited, the publication points out.
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