Homes to rent - Profile of the luxury tenant in Milan

The Lombardy property market keeps racing ahead: Milan is confirmed as Italy's rental capital. Helped along by inflation, rents in the city rose by 11.2% over the past year, to the point that Milan has now overtaken Paris, Berlin and Barcelona on monthly rent.

Despite the dizzying figures, demand for large luxury homes in the city's most prestigious and historic streets is extremely high: thanks to Brexit, the flat tax and greater job mobility, many foreign professionals are choosing to move to Milan and are looking for fine homes, equipped with every comfort and reflecting Made in Italy taste, for which they are willing to pay a great deal.

A sizeable number of high-spending tenants and a low supply of fine apartments make luxury rentals a protected segment of the property market, in which demand far exceeds supply.

To understand how this market is evolving further, you only need to look at the figures from Nativo, a luxury property management company in Milan founded in 2020 by Sara Lini (born 1993) and Adriano Frigoli (born 1991).

The innovative property start-up receives an average of 80 rental enquiries a month, with peaks at the start of the year, in spring and at the end of summer, between September and October: numbers that are growing steadily, confirming the acceleration the luxury rental segment is going through. The average stay is 8 months, and the most sought-after homes are three-room apartments, for people who, alone or as a couple, don't want to give up a spare room for guests, and four- and five-room apartments, preferred by families and increasingly hard to find fully renovated.

Profile of the luxury tenant

Nativo's data shows that over 70% of enquiries for luxury apartments in Milan come from foreign clients: most previously lived in London, and the rest come from all over the world, in particular the USA, Canada, France, Mexico, Peru and Brazil. The tenants work in a wide range of sectors: corporate, investment funds, real estate, finance, banking, pharmaceuticals, but there are also ambassadors, politicians, commodity and agri-food magnates (diamonds, coal mines or large plantations in South America) and CEOs of unicorns (start-ups valued at over 1 billion euros) who live as digital nomads between places like Dubai, Monaco and Switzerland. Milan has always been attractive thanks to its strengths in fashion, design, food, art and sport, which bring many foreigners to move here temporarily for work or interest. People who work in fashion, influencers, figures from entertainment and music (singers, actors, presenters, production companies), artists who come for the seasons at Milan's Teatro alla Scala, footballers and presidents of foreign football clubs.

The Lombard capital is also famous worldwide for its prestigious universities. It isn't only students who turn to Nativo to find an apartment to rent, but also established adult entrepreneurs who come to Milan to attend Executive Masters and MBAs, mainly from the USA, the Arab countries, Turkey and Eastern Europe.

The dolce vita also continues to draw wealthy foreign heirs and HNWIs (High Net Worth Individuals), attracted above all by the chance to enjoy luxury, by Milan's prestige and events, and by its closeness to coveted places such as Tuscany and Lake Como.

Although in a smaller percentage, Italians are also among Nativo's clients: mostly families returning after a period abroad, waiting for the renovation of their home to finish or for a newly built property they have bought to be handed over. There are also men and women who, after a divorce, are looking for a home as large and beautiful as the one they lived in before, in which to live and host their children.

“To build a profile of our typical tenant, we can't ignore their monthly ‘salary’. Among employees, average earnings are around 30 thousand euros a month. But we have also had a tenant with a net monthly income of 115 thousand euros. Many others are entrepreneurs or HNWIs, with vast wealth in cash, property, investments and companies. To give an even clearer idea of what some of our clients can spend, there are people who rent several homes at the same time: in the city they come from and in the place where they are living temporarily, in some cases paying double or even triple rent” - says Sara Lini, Co-founder of Nativo.

When the rent includes hotel services

Hotel-style services, for which tenants are willing to pay extra, are essential: quality homes, furnished and equipped with every comfort down to the last piece of crockery, where they can arrive with just their suitcase and not have to worry about anything, exactly as in a hotel.

“The most requested services are cleaning and laundry, but also personal trainers, drivers and private chefs. Tenants often ask us to help them find sports classes for their children or language teachers, deal with the paperwork for their relocation, help with the move, suggest leisure trips in Italy, luxury car hire, personal shoppers, home delivery of gourmet Italian groceries” - says Sara Lini - “Over the years there have also been some stranger requests: one guest asked us to replace all the artworks in a property with his favourites, without which he couldn't sleep; for another we had to find 5 garages near the property for his collection of luxury cars. Not to mention the time a production company for Hollywood stars asked us to find a villa with a private park in the heart of Brera, with a heated indoor pool and a chef specialising in macrobiotic diets, a masseur, a driver and a personal trainer always on call” - adds Adriano Frigoli, Co-founder of Nativo.

In terms of neighbourhoods, guests' searches focus mainly on the heart of Milan, between Brera, the streets of the Quadrilatero della Moda, Sant’Ambrogio and Porta Nuova: all very large apartments, with three or more bedrooms, from 250 sq m upwards, with an extra bedroom and bathroom for the babysitter, a parking space and a concierge. The monthly price varies according to each property's specific features, the quality of the furnishings and the area: a four-room apartment in a historic-centre district like Brera can cost from 9 to 11 thousand euros a month, peaking at 15–20 thousand euros for truly “unique” properties; a three-room apartment costs from 6 to 8 thousand euros, and a two-room apartment from 4 to 5 thousand euros.

A selection worthy of a private club

With so many rental enquiries, Nativo's process for vetting guests is extremely careful, worthy of the best private clubs:

“After a first introductory interview, in which we look into the person's personal and professional profile and the reason for their stay, we select the potential tenants who seem most suitable and arrange an in-person viewing of the property. Only those with the best financial credentials make the final shortlist: at that point, taking into account factors such as references, age, intended use of the property and, why not, our sixth sense too, we make a decision. Our gut first impression matters a great deal: just from the way a guest moves around the home during the viewing we can tell how much care and attention they will give the property” - says Sara Lini.

The occupancy rate of the apartments in the Nativo collection is 95%: with a long waiting list of highly referenced clients from which to choose the right tenant, no more than two weeks ever pass between a new property joining the collection and someone moving in. And there has never been a single case of unpaid rent.

Come and learn how the high-end market works, and how you can position your brand in the premium–luxury sector, selling your products or services in Italy and abroad at high prices, and so increasing your profits and margins without losing market share or sales.

Discover the live course “Margini di Lusso”, 8th edition, Friday 20 and Saturday 21 November 2026 in Milan, taught in Italian: book your place on the course page.