Pre-opening | wecity finances the conversion of a hotel into 22 apartments in Calenzano (Florence, Italy) through a €1,000,000 mortgage loan

07/09/2026 – ⏱ 5 min

This article is for informational purposes only and does not, under any circumstances, constitute investment advice or a recommendation.

The crowdfunding platform wecity is preparing to launch a real estate investment opportunity in Tuscany. The developer Sesto Costruzioni srl is seeking financing to purchase a hotel located at Via di Prato 62, in Calenzano (Florence, Italy), with the aim of refurbishing it and converting it into a residential building of 22 apartments and 44 uncovered parking spaces. The transaction is structured as a fixed-rate mortgage loan secured by a first-rank mortgage over the asset. Investors should keep in mind that any reference to return is inseparable from the corresponding risk, which is described below.

The fundraising target has been set at €1,000,000, earmarked exclusively for the acquisition of the property. The transaction sets a nominal annual interest rate of 11%, with a total estimated return of 16.50%; this estimate is subject to investment risk and is not guaranteed. The ordinary term is 18 months, with the option of a further 6-month extension, and incorporates a 6-month lock-up period. Interest is paid at maturity. The minimum investment is €500 per user and the asset carries a credit rating of A. The published offering does not specify the opening date and time of the call, a point the investor should verify on the platform and in the key investment information sheet before committing funds.

Asset Description, Technical Progress and Commercial Traction

The underlying asset is a hotel building with a built area of 2,500 square meters located in Calenzano, a municipality in the urban belt of Florence. The project envisages its conversion into 22 residential units, accompanied by 44 surface parking spaces. On the planning side, the permit will be applied for once the asset has been acquired, so the call is being launched at a stage prior to obtaining the permit. Commercially, the sale of the units had not begun as at the date of the call.

The scheme will be delivered under a self-promotion arrangement: once the permit is obtained, buyers will acquire the units in shell condition and will sign a works contract with the developer that will fund the execution of the works. The investors' exit is envisaged through the sale of the homes. The developer points to growing demand in the area west and north of Florence as the backdrop to the transaction, attributed to the rise in prices recorded in the city itself.

The business plan is managed by Sesto Costruzioni, a contractor and developer with more than 65 years of activity in Florence and its surroundings. The firm began in mainly residential construction and later broadened its activity into civil works; its projects include works at the Artemio Franchi stadium in Florence and at several historic estates in Tuscany. In recent years it has developed schemes on its own account in the Florentine urban belt, specifically in the Sesto Fiorentino and Calenzano areas.

Financial Structure, Coverage Ratios and Real Collateral

The project's capital structure is articulated across three tranches totalling €4,150,000: the developer's equity contribution of €650,000, equivalent to 15.7% of the total funds required and earmarked for the purchase of the asset; the loan raised through wecity, of €1,000,000; and the contributions of the buyers under the self-promotion arrangement, of €2,500,000, which will fund the execution of the works once the permit is obtained.

According to the valuation report issued by RYZE, the current valuation of the asset amounts to €1,530,000, which determines a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 65.36% against the present state of the property. The completed-building valuation (HET) stands at €5,779,000, resulting in an HET LTV of 17.30% relative to the loan amount.

The main collateral is the registration of a first-rank mortgage over the property at Via di Prato 62. The constitution, preservation, management, administration and, where applicable, enforcement of the security on behalf of investors are delegated to a security agent external to the platform, designated in the loan agreement; the costs of constituting the security — taxes, notary, administrative agency, registry and security agent — are funded within the amount of the transaction. The use of funds will be supervised by an external monitoring firm, and the developer must document each drawdown: the amount remains deposited in an escrow account opened at the payment institution Lemonway and is released in stages as the verifying entity authorises each drawdown.

The A rating comes from an external scoring system that separately scores developer, project and collateral, with relative weights of 25%, 50% and 25% respectively, on a scale of 0 to 10. The platform itself warns that this nomenclature is not comparable to the ratings of agencies such as Standard and Poor's, Moody's or Fitch, does not constitute a measure of the quality or suitability of the investment, and is no substitute for the investor's own due diligence. wecity's success fee amounts to 4.50% plus VAT of the amount financed, is contemplated within the project's costs and is only charged if the requested funding is reached. wecity is authorised by the Spanish securities regulator (CNMV), with a favourable proposal from the Bank of Spain, and registered under number 9.

The risks identified in the documentation include credit risk in the event the developer fails to pay principal or interest, sector risk arising from macroeconomic changes or a reduction in demand, default and insolvency risk — in which case claims secured by mortgage would rank as specially privileged credits under Spanish insolvency law — the risk of lower or delayed returns, illiquidity risk given the absence of an active secondary market for the loan, and the risk that investors cannot influence the management of the developer company.

In compliance with the European crowdfunding framework, it is recalled that non-experienced investors have a four-calendar-day pre-contractual reflection period during which they may revoke their investment offer without justification or penalty. This is a crowdfunding product and not a deposit or a guaranteed savings product. Real estate investments carry risks of illiquidity and of total or partial loss of principal; crowdfunding projects are not supervised by the CNMV or the Bank of Spain, the information provided by the developer has not been reviewed by those bodies, and the investment lacks the coverage of the deposit guarantee scheme provided for in Directive 2014/49/EU and of the investor compensation scheme provided for in Directive 97/9/EC. Investors may obtain no return at all on their investment.

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