Olympic Glow Fuels Milan’s Luxury Housing Boom in Italy

As Milan welcomes the world for the Winter Olympics, the city is enjoying a victory lap of its own.

The Italian commercial capital emerged as Europe’s hottest luxury housing market, where prices are climbing faster than anywhere else on the continent and demand is rippling far beyond its historic core.

Milan boasts the strongest high-end residential market in Europe, according to Knight Frank, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sale prices in the city’s luxury segment jumped about 38 percent between the third quarter of 2020 and 2025, fueled by international buyers, favorable tax policies for incoming residents and a steady drumbeat of redevelopment tied to the Games.

Italy’s 2017 tax incentives for wealthy newcomers helped draw buyers from across Europe and the Middle East, Knight Frank’s Liam Bailey told the publication. Milan’s broader housing market rose in tandem.

Average home prices hit roughly $608 per square foot in December, the highest in the city’s history and well ahead of other major cities, such as Florence, according to PwC Italy. Even with only slight year-over-year growth, Milan sits in a league of its own domestically.

International purchasers are drawn to the city center’s historic, pedestrian-friendly districts, whereas domestic Italian buyers are demonstrating greater adaptability, favoring leafier locales outside the main hub or exclusive high-end enclaves such as Zona Magenta.

At the very top of the market, Brera has overtaken the city’s famed fashion district as Milan’s priciest enclave. High-end homes there averaged nearly $1,900 per square foot in the first half of last year and a renovated duplex sold for more than $28 million last year, a city record for an apartment.

The Olympic footprint is also reshaping neighborhoods once considered fringe.

Scalo Romana, south of the historic center, is home to the $177 million Olympic Village designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. After the athletes leave, the complex will convert to student housing, but brokers say the impact is already clear: rising prices, tighter inventory and splashy listings, including a penthouse with a private pool asking about $4 million.

Across Milan, panoramic penthouses have become the most coveted product, particularly those with unobstructed city views or sightlines to the Alps. Redevelopment has created a steady supply of top-floor units.

Even the suburbs are feeling the heat. Monza and Brianza ranks as Greater Milan’s most expensive outlying markets, while districts like Porta Nuova and Isola continue to cash in on a decade-long transformation anchored by headline projects such as Bosco Verticale.

— Holden Walter-Warner