After record 2025 first quarter leasing grows by 3.5%

The leasing market is in good health. In 2025 the stipulated reached EUR 36 billion and the new year started with an increase in value of 3.5%. Over the past decade, the stipulated has risen from 17 billion in 2015 to 36 billion in 2025, an increase of 5.8% compared to 2024. In 2025, as much as 65% of investments in capital goods acquired with the Nuova Sabatini subsidies were financed through leasing. In the first quarter of 2026 leasing grew by 3.5% compared to the same period of the previous year. Italia is the second largest manufacturing country in Europe and among those with the highest number of small and medium-sized enterprises.

These are the figures presented at the annual assembly of Assilea, the national association of leasing and medium/long-term rental companies. "Investments, together with structural reforms, are the key to increasing production capacity and productivity," said Paolo Guzzetti, president of Assilea, recalling the need for - certainty of rules, little bureaucracy, an efficient and capillary infrastructure and logistics system, easy access to all the various forms of financing. And in investment financing, leasing plays a significant role'. The president also reiterated the need for a revision of the prudential framework based on the recognition of the lower riskiness of leasing compared to more traditional financing instruments, as borne out by abundant empirical evidence: loss rates on average 16% lower, the average riskiness of companies that resort to leasing lower than that of companies that do not use it, lower default rates compared to bank loans. A lower capital absorption related to leasing exposure would free up important new resources for financing the investments of SMEs, which are necessary to accelerate the environmental and digital transition of the entire European system.

'Whatever the asset, leasing always has a common element: the propensity to invest, which is why the MEF monitors it closely,' stressed Giancarlo Giorgetti, Minister for the Economy and Finance, in his greeting. "Your data for the first quarter show an expansion that goes hand in hand with stability in the number of contracts: real estate, the automotive sector, supported by industrial and green vehicles, are doing very well. The government's measures to support investment,' Giorgetti concluded, 'are targeted, because they are aimed at those who invest, selective, because they reward productivity, and sustainable, because they are compatible with public finance objectives.

According to an elaboration by the association's study centre, "in Italia an average reduction in capital requirements of 15 percentage points would free up 2 billion in capital, translating into a 10% increase in stipulated capital". In the light of these values and the development role that leasing can play, the association aims to work to obtain full recognition of leasing in all facilitation and incentive programmes for companies; to spread a better knowledge of leasing at all levels,' concluded the chairman.

According to surveys by the Assilea Studies and Statistics Centre, 201,443 new leasing contracts were concluded in the first quarter of 2026, worth more than EUR 8.9 billion. Compared to the same period in 2025, there was a +3.5% growth in volumes and +0.1% in numbers. Analysing the month of March alone, there was an increase in the value of stipulated contracts of +34.8% compared to the previous month and +10.6% compared to March 2025. Car-related contracts accounted for 68.5% of the total stipulated value with +3.6% in volumes against a decrease of -2.3% in numbers, recording positive dynamics in the segment of long-term rental cars and industrial vehicles.