Findomestic: durable goods to slow down (-2.4%) in 2025
The Observatory data realised with Prometeia
"People are spending much more today than in pre-pandemic times, to buy less". With these words Claudio Bardazzi, head of the Findomestic Observatory realised together with Prometeia, summarises the sales trend of durable goods in Italy, with households spending 11.4% more to buy, in volume, 6.8% less. "This is the effect of the average price growth of close to 20 per cent from 2019," Bardazzi reports. Thus, sales of durable goods this year see 2 billion vanish and stop at 77.1 billion. A reversal after two years of growth and the market remains above the levels seen before the pandemic.
The sector suffering the most is that of cars and motorbikes, which together account for 57% of the durable goods market. Not surprising is the thud, -9% in value, of new cars with registrations down by a quarter compared to pre-pandemic. Demand poured into second-hand cars, which became the leading market by value with a turnover of 24.4 billion, 8 billion more than new cars. Things are not going better for motorbikes, which this year, after a four-year period of growth, is retreating with -7% in value and -7.7 in volume. The comparison with 2019, however, shows +36% in volume and +55% in value.
"In the face of falling consumption in the world of durables, the credit market continues to grow - comments Marco Tarantola, CEO and general manager of Findomestic Banca -. In the first ten months of the year, disbursements mark +7%, with riskiness remaining at very low levels with a default rate at the end of September 2025 of 1.7%, although showing a slight increase over the year". The market for household goods such as furniture is also settling at EUR 16.5 billion, with volumes falling (-1.7%) and prices rising slightly (+1.1%). In consumer electronics, smartphones lead the way with sales of EUR 6.3 billion. Headphones and wearable devices are on the rise. Household appliances accounted for EUR 6.5 billion, of which EUR 4.2 billion for large appliances and the rest for small appliances. For the former, the change factor is linked to improved energy efficiency, while small appliances are top performers thanks to hygiene products, robot hoovers and air fryers. Information technology saw a +1.7% to 2.2 billion while consumer electronics lost almost 2% to 1.6 billion.
