An Innovative Approach for the Enhancement of Public Real Estate Assets

In a context of dwindling resources and growing financial constraints for public administrations, available real estate assets can become an important economic resource both for debt reduction through their alienation, and for carrying out public works through rehabilitation and defunctionalisation using private capital. The latter requires the adoption of innovative policies and strategies to enhance the value of the assets, especially those that are disused or abandoned, which very often represent a critical element in the overall management of public administrations. This study proposes a strategy for the enhancement of public assets using a little-experimented contractual form of public–private partnership. This approach, through a complex exchange transaction, avoids the total disposal of the assets, thus guaranteeing the social and environmental sustainability of the intervention, and also allows for the enhancement of the property with a financially convenient solution for both partners. The balance between the benefits of the two parties is in fact the basis of the model proposed for the final solution.