Post-Occupancy Evaluation of reused confiscated assets: an application in the Campania Region.

Within public policies aimed at the reuse of the extensive real estate assets confiscated from organized crime, characterised by strong typological heterogeneity, the National Strategy for the Enhancement of Confiscated Assets through Cohesion Policies (2017) represents a relevant territorial development tool. Fundings are allocated to the renovation and adaptive reuse of properties for social and civil purposes, the strengthening of institutional capacity in confiscated assets management, and the promotion of legality and social inclusion. However, these interventions raise several evaluation issues. From an appraisal perspective, a key challenge concens the estimation of market-consistent rental values for publicly owned assets assigned to economic operators, given that such properties cannot be sold or mortgaged. Furthermore, in contexts characterized by high criminal intensity, contextual risk factors and negative externalities significantly affect real estate market performance. Despite numerous rehabilitation interventions, several confiscated assets, returned to the community, fail to meet local needs, sometimes becoming underutilized and resulting in a waste of public resources and, above all, important opportunities for territorial development. This inefficiency can potentially be overcome through more intense community involvement in decision-making processes, with the aim of identifying real problems and defining uses consistent with the needs of the territory. In this scenario, the paper explores the possibility of applying Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) as a support tool for public administrations, capable of helping both to define intervention priorities and to formulate improvement strategies. The application of the POE is proposed for a case study in the province of Caserta, in the Campania region (Italy).