Existing assets and efficiency margins
In Italy, a significant part of the non-residential real estate is still in the lowest energy classes (FG): over 40% of buildings fall into the least efficient classes according to the most recent calculations on APE data. This is an often dated building stock, with obsolete systems and still predominantly reactive management: this is where the main need for intervention is concentrated.
Advanced management models, based on digital platforms and IoT technologies, would make it possible to improve the control of properties and anticipate critical issues: predictive maintenance can reduce unplanned interventions by a third, while energy efficiency improvements generate savings of between 15% and 25%. Overall, these solutions could lead to a reduction in operating costs in the order of 20%-30%, with returns in the medium term (Fervo calculations based on sector data and international benchmarks).
As Rocco Ruggiero, COO of Fervo explains “The technical management of buildings is evolving from a predominantly reactive activity to an increasingly industrialized process. Operations centers, continuous monitoring, IoT, BIM and artificial intelligence now allow interventions to be planned, processes to be standardized and technical skills to be used more efficiently. In a market that struggles to find specialized personnel, technology does not replace the technician, but exponentially increases their operational and decision-making capacity.“
Adds the CEO of Fervo, Alessandro Belloni: “The future of real estate will no longer be based only on the ownership of assets, but on the ability to manage their technological and operational complexity. Management therefore becomes a strategic lever capable of generating value, resilience and attractiveness for investors. Those who integrate technical skills, data and digital culture will drive the performance of the assets; the others will remain on the margins of a sector that will gradually become less fragmented and increasingly industrial, technological and oriented towards the creation of long-term value.”
Management costs: how much they affect the life cycle of the property
If observed on an annual basis, management costs appear to be low, averaging between 2% and 4% of the value of the property. A large part of these is represented by energy consumption (approximately 1%–3%), followed by technical maintenance (approximately 0.5%–1%), while the remaining portion concerns administrative management and additional services.
Considering a life cycle of approximately 30 years, operating costs take on a progressively dominant weight, to the point of exceeding, in many cases, the initial construction investment, especially in existing assets destined to remain in use. Yet, in market valuations, these costs often remain marginal, with the result that the price of properties only partially reflects their real ability to generate value over time.
Continuous management, data and predictive maintenance
In a context in which existing real estate is destined to remain in use for decades to come, management over time becomes a determining factor. Properties go through changes of ownership, intended use and operational management, and the loss of continuity in efficiency and control strategies is a real risk.
Fervo’s experience – gained on tens of thousands of orders, and more than 2.5 million square meters managed annually – shows how efficiency improvement is not a punctual intervention, but a process that requires an integrated and continuous vision: the progressive knowledge of real estate assets and related systems allows you to have, regardless of ownership, an all-encompassing information asset of both the technical history and the usage data of the building. In this way, performance is improved and the share of unplanned interventions is reduced, in many cases in the order of 10%–20%, making management costs more predictable.
Ruggiero continues:“The new is important but the real challenge today is to best manage what already exists: the heritage of the next 30 years is largely the current one. To do this, however, buildings must be able to explain how they work. Many existing properties are still ‘silent’ from a maintenance and energy point of view. In these cases it is essential to intervene with plug-and-play IoT solutions, installed in a strategic way, which allow even a centuries-old building to be ‘talking’, collecting the information necessary to plan maintenance, improve efficiency and make data-based decisions.”
And Belloni adds: “In real estate, the value of a property does not crystallize at the moment of purchase: it is generated, protected and increased over time. Today, management is no longer an ancillary function, but a strategic investment lever, capable of impacting the performance of the asset, its resilience and the decisions of investors. This is why a long-term vision and a stable relationship are needed, capable of accompanying the property throughout its life cycle, even beyond changes in ownership.“.
In this perspective, the transition from reactive maintenance to predictive maintenance does not only concern the prevention of damage, but also the ability to know, monitor and enhance the existing real estate assets over time: an approach to “Building Well” which will also be at the center of the 3rd edition of CoNaPE, the National Conference on Building Pathologies: Prevention and Best Practicesorganized by Maggioli Editore for 14 April 2027 in Bologna, where the topic of conscious management of buildings will be addressed as one of the key challenges for the technicians of the future.
The Fervo Group
The Fervo Group, founded in 2009 and with headquarters in Nova Milanese, operates in the technical management of infrastructures and real estate assets, with services that include construction and maintenance of systems, energy efficiency, general contracting and interventions for the enhancement of greenery. The activity focuses on the integration between sustainability, technological innovation and digital tools, with the aim of improving the performance of assets and reducing their carbon footprint.
The group has over 300 employees and has operational offices in Rome, Bologna, Genoa, Florence and Saudi Arabia. In April 2026 it acquired BayWare Power Solutions, a Verona-based company specializing in photovoltaics for the industrial segment, with a turnover of more than 20 million euros. Following the transaction, Fervo expects to achieve a turnover of approximately 100 million euros in 2026.
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