Life in apartment buildings: research by Changes-Ipsos

LIFE IN APARTMENT BUILDINGS:

ONE ITALIAN IN THREE QUARRELS OR FIGHTS WITH NEIGHBOURS

• Naples is the most quarrelsome city (37%), followed by Rome (34%), Cagliari (33%) and Turin (31%).
• The reasons behind the fighting differ among cities: noise (29%) and undesirable behaviour by residents (27%) are the main reasons, but quarrelling in Naples mainly involves "uncivilised" parking (27%), in Verona, apartment building expenses (24%), in Rome, pets (21%), in Turin, separate collection (18%) and in Milan, bicycle management (14%).

These are the results of research by Changes Unipol, processed by Ipsos, on apartment building living for Italians, which also show that:

• One Italian in two is unhappy with their apartment building manager. Romans are the most dissatisfied (64%), followed by Milanese (56%) and Neapolitans (52%).
• The main reasons for unhappiness are linked to the lack of proactivity by managers in solving apartment building problems (36%), unsatisfactory administrative management (34%) and the perception of a certain detachment from what residents require (34%).
• Lack of satisfaction with administrative management is more keenly felt in Rome (48%), Bologna (46%) and Naples (44%), while dissatisfaction with the poor levels of manager availability is more common in Milan (45%) and Florence (42%) and there is a perception of low levels of transparency in the activities in Turin (38%) and Florence (31%).
• Almost three Italians in four say that they attend apartment building meetings. The most active cities are Bologna and Bari where 70% and 59% respectively of apartment building residents almost always attend meetings. Milan and Verona are the cities with the poorest attendance, where one third hardly ever attend apartment building meetings.

Bologna, 24 July 2023

Over 7 in 10 Italians live in places that require them to interact with their neighbours and deal with apartment building organisation. Changes Unipolcarried out new research on this issue1, processed by Ipsos and aimed at analysing the quality and quantity of interpersonal relationships among apartment building dwellers, the level of satisfaction at the work of apartment building managers and more generally, the relationship with management aspects such as apartment building meetings and expenses.

One in three Italians fights with their neighbours: the reasons

Only 37% of Italians interact relatively frequently with their neighbours: 27% say that they interact with their neighbours about once a week, but only 10% say that they interact several times a day. Two Italians in ten state that they have no interactions at all.

Bologna is the most active metropolitan area in terms of neighbourly relations (61% say at least

once a week) while Rome and Turin are the cities with the greatest absence of interactions (24% and

21% respectively). Among generations, young Generation Z (16-26 years old) have the most

frequent interactions, in 48% of cases, at least once a week, followed by Baby Boomers (57-74years old), while Millennials (27-40years old) and Generation X (41-56years old) are the most "introverted", possibly partly to do with the fact that they are at home less during working hours.

Neighbourly relations are mostly defined by Italians as "normal": they are not close, but would help out if necessary (in 59% of cases). However, not everything in the garden is rosy, on the other hand: one in three Italians have had at least one fight or quarrel with their neighbours, and in 15% of cases, there has been more than one fight. Among the metropolitan areas, Naples is the most quarrelsome city (37% have quarrelled at least once), with this special classification followed by Rome (34%), Cagliari (33%) and Turin (31%). On the other hand, Florence is the city with the most harmonious relations, where 79% say that they have never had apartment building disputes, followed by Milan (75%) and Verona (75%).

Among the age categories, the young Generation Z - who interact most with their neighbours - have the most frequent disputes or quarrels (in 39% of cases), while Baby Boomers are the most "peaceful" since 77% of them have never had quarrels with their neighbours.

• The survey was carried out on a representative sample of the national population aged between 16-74 (over 44 million individuals) and resident in the main metropolitan areas (over 13 million individuals), in accordance with gender, age, geographic zone, size of the centre, education status, standard of living, job and household. 1,720 interviews were carried out using the CAWI method (Computer Assisted Web Interviewing: a data collection method based on filling out a questionnaire on the Internet).

Why do Italians fall out with their neighbours? Firstly, in 29% of cases, they fight due to noise disturbance or noise made at unsuitable hours, followed by "undesirable" behaviour by neighbours (27% of cases) and "uncivilised parking" by vehicles (20%). However, if we analyse the individual cities, each Italian city has its own characteristics.

More specifically, the uncivilised parking of vehicles is a reason for disputes in Naples especially (3 people in 10 compared to 2 people in 10 on average in Italy), while in Bari it is the failure to pay or the delayed payment of apartment building expenses which forms the basis for most quarrelling (23% compared to a national average of 16%).

Pet management generates arguments especially in Rome (21% compared to a national average of 14%), while in Milan it is bicycle management that creates disagreements (14%, more than double the national average of 6%) along with the caretaker service (10% of cases). On the other hand, in Turin, disputes often start due to separate collection management (18% compared to a national average of 10%) and blocking passageways in entrance halls/landings with strollers, scooters or other objects (14% compared to a national average of 10%).

In Verona and Florence, there are also higher than average quarrels caused by apartment building work and expenses (24% and 22% respectively compared to a national average of 17%), and for garden maintenance (13% and 14% of cases respectively compared to a national average of 7%).

Fights are caused by a quarter of Generation X (25%) due to the improper parking of vehicles, while

Generation Z quarrels are most often occasioned by the undesirable behaviour of other residents (26% of cases). Almost one Baby Boomer in four (23%) reports delays in the payment of apartment building expenses.

Half of Italians are unhappy with their apartment building managers

One Italian in two, 52% to be precise, is unhappy with their apartment building manager. More specifically, there is more disappointment in big cities: Romans, with a negative rating of 64%, are the most unhappy, followed by the inhabitants of Milan (56%). On the other hand, Bologna and Cagliari are the cities with the most positive assessments, with 43% and 38% respectively giving the work of their managers a score of at least 8 compared to a national average of 26%.

The happiest generation with managers are the Baby Boomers, in 32% of cases, while Generation X and the Millennials are the most critical, with negative assessments in 56% and 55% of cases respectively.

The main reasons for unhappiness are linked to the lack of proactivity by managers in solving apartment building problems and needs (in 36% of cases), unsatisfactory administrative management (34%) and the perception of a certain detachment from what the apartment building

residents are interested in and require (34%). More generally, people who complained about building managers were more concerned about their poor ability to do their jobs (in 82% of cases) rather than for reasons linked to unfairness or dishonesty (67% of cases).

Lack of satisfaction with administrative management is more keenly felt in Rome (48%), Bologna (46%) and Naples (44%), lack of satisfaction due to the poor levels of manager availability was felt in Milan (45%) and Florence (42%), while Turin and Florence complain of poor transparency (38% and 31% respectively). On the other hand, Cagliari and Naples report a lack of organisational ability by managers (36% and 33%), while financial management is unsatisfactory in Bologna (35%) and Turin (31%).

Among the various generations, half of Baby Boomers complain about the low levels of proactivity by managers (in 51% of cases) and their lack of regard towards resident requirements (46%), sharing this position with Generation Z (48% of cases), while Millennials and Generation X were more critical of administrative management, in 38% and 37% of cases respectively.

Apartment building meetings: one Italian in two takes part regularly

The issue of apartment building management is important for Italians, many of whom take part in apartment building meetings (72% attend, with 49% always or almost always). The most active cities are Bari and Bologna where at least 6 residents out of 10 almost always take part in the apartment building meetings. On the other hand, Milan and Verona are the cities with the poorest

attendance, with one third hardly ever attending meetings.

Baby Boomers are the most consistent participants (78%), while Generation Z and Millennials

register the highest number of absences, with a third of them never or almost never attending meetings.

Apartment building meetings are currently mainly held in person (in 77% of cases), also the

preferred mode for 64% of interviewees even though 18% of Italians would prefer them to be held remotely, on-line (which is currently only carried out in 5% of cases). Milanese in particular (35% of cases), and Romans (26%), are the ones most likely to prefer on-line meetings. Millennials and Generation X, the most enthusiastically outdoor generations who are busy at work during the day, are the ones who are most interested in on-line meetings.

Overall, only 2 out of 10 Italians say they are fully satisfied with apartment building meetings (scores from 8 to 10) and the city with the highest level of satisfaction is Bologna, followed by Cagliari, while Rome and Naples are the metropolitan areas where dissatisfaction is most common (scores from 1 to 5).

The main reason for dissatisfaction is absenteeism by residents (37%), followed by low frequency of meetings (34%), the inability to have polite discussions (27%) and the lack of mediation by

managers in the case of arguments (25%).

For Millennials and Generation X, the lack of satisfaction is mainly linked to the unsuitable times at which they are held, and therefore the need for more flexibility, due to their greater need to reconcile work, home and household management (28% and 25% respectively compared to a national average of 22%).

Finally, Italians claim that they pay average apartment building expenses of about €100 per month, which amount is not considered to be appropriate by one interviewee out of three (32%). Milan and Bologna have higher than average expenses, of €162 and €132 respectively. Obviously, all cities would like to pay lower apartment building rates, especially Milan whose inhabitants would like to reduce expenses by almost 40% to bring them into line with the national average.

Unipol Gruppo

Unipol is one of the biggest insurance groups in Europe and the leading company in Italy in the non-life insurance sector, (especially in the MV and health businesses), with total premiums of €13.6bn, of which €8.3bn in non-life and €5.3bn in life (2022 figures). Unipol adopts an integrated offer strategy and covers the entire range of insurance and financial products, operating primarily through the subsidiary UnipolSai Assicurazioni. The Group is also active in direct MV insurance (Linear Assicurazioni), transport and aviation insurance (Siat), health insurance (UniSalute) and supplementary pensions and covers the bancassurance channel (Arca Vita and Arca Assicurazioni). It also manages significant diversified assets in the real estate, hotel (Gruppo UNA), medical-healthcare and agricultural (Tenute del Cerro) sectors. Unipol Gruppo S.p.A. is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange.

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