Italy's social security agency INPS (Istituto Nazionale Previdenza Sociale) is in the process of selecting a facility and property management company as well as a SGR fund management firm to launch a fund which will own the bulk of the agency's property assets.

Italian newspapers reported that the fund will have a value of roughly EUR 2 bn and will own 13,000 residential units as well as 1,200 plots of land.

Meanwhile, the state-owned pension fund is also carrying forward a plan to divest 75 office properties across the country in the 'largest real estate disposal ever realised by the public administration in Italy'. The portfolio, offering some 175,000 m2 of space, is expected to fetch some EUR 400 mln, generating capital gains of EUR 84 mln.

Similarly, Italian pension fund Inpdap has agreed to open the capital of its Aristotele real estate fund to other investors. The EUR 630 mln vehicle, which is managed by fund manager Fabrica SGR, is 90%-invested with a portfolio consisting of 15 assets. Plans are to extend the life of the fund for a further 10 years and allow other institutional investors to take a capital participation. Aristotele mostly invests in student housing and nursing homes.