Italian industrial real estate shifts toward defense and retail sectors

The Italian industrial and commercial real estate markets are seeing significant activity driven by defense rearmament and retail investments. According to a report by Cushman & Wakefield, the European defense industry has initiated 197 new facility projects between January 2024 and August 2026. Italy ranks sixth in Europe for these projects, with a specific focus on aerospace and naval sectors. Six out of ten Italian projects involve aircraft and ships, placing the country third in these categories behind France and the United Kingdom.

In the retail sector, CBRE reports that the Italian secondary retail market attracted approximately 2.2 billion euros in the first half of 2026, totaling about 7 billion euros for the semester. This represents a 2% annual increase. A significant portion of this activity includes shopping centers, retail parks, and outlets, with a pipeline of over 1 billion euros identified in the good secondary segment. CBRE anticipates a contraction in yields for these assets by the end of 2026 due to the high volume of expected transactions.