DIH Solutions secures Limehome as anchor tenant for 80 serviced apartments in Lugano

At the start of the mandate, the team therefore tested whether the building should be developed as a single-tenant property, for example as a classic hotel or a pure long-stay product, or whether a combination of uses would work better.

The aim was not to fit as many hospitality units as possible into the building. What mattered was which use fits the asset, the building's structure and the Lugano market in the long run.

The analysis pointed in a clear direction: around 80 serviced apartments as part of a mixed-use scheme, alongside office space and other uses.

Hospitality stays a substantial part of the project without the whole building having to be built around a single operating concept.

Lugano benefits from its standing as a high-end leisure destination, and the city also has real business and corporate demand.

For a serviced-apartment concept, that mix is what makes the location interesting. Alongside strong tourist demand in the peak seasons, corporate, project and mid-stay guests can add demand across the year.

For the operator strategy, it was therefore important to find a partner whose concept does not rely on classic hotel demand alone but can run different lengths of stay profitably.

Building on the mixed-use strategy, DIH Solutions structured and ran the operator process for MONDO.

The mandate covered market screening, identifying and approaching suitable operators, comparing concepts and commercial offers, and supporting the process through to the choice of operator.

The choice fell on Limehome.

The company's technology-based, largely centralised operating model works across different building types, which makes it a good fit for conversion and mixed-use projects in particular.

For Lugano, the deciding factor was that the concept can serve different demand profiles profitably, from shorter leisure stays to corporate and mid-stay use.

For DIH Solutions, Lugano is also an important cross-border mandate.

The case shows why operator advisory on conversion projects often starts before the actual operator search. Not every suitable building has to become a hotel or a serviced-apartment building in full.

Sometimes the stronger business case lies in sizing the hospitality component correctly and combining it with other uses.

In Lugano, that process led to a mixed-use scheme with 80 serviced apartments, and then to an operator whose model fits that strategy.