House purchases up 2.7% between June and September with slight price reductions

The property market is regaining some vitality, with a return to residential sales and prices falling slightly.

In the report presented yesterday by Nomisma on Italy's 13 major cities (Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Padua, Palermo, Rome, Turin, Venice city and Venice Mestre), the real estate sector seems to be forgetting the credit crunch and its consequences.

After the two rate cuts by the ECB, the market recovered. "The trend has been confirmed after the summer months, with the prospect of further strengthening with the start of the new year, when further corrections will have given further concreteness to expectations that have returned to being positively oriented," the report states. Also yesterday, the Agenzia delle Entrate Observatory recorded house sales in the third quarter of 2024 up 2.7% on the same period in 2023 (+1.2% in the second quarter) and affecting, albeit with slightly different intensities, all territorial areas. It should be noted that in general this is the weakest quarter, from June to September, including the holiday period. Housing exchanges grew in all large cities except Milan and Naples.

According to Nomisma, these are not striking movements, but they do attest to the overcoming of the most critical phase and the beginning of an upturn. In 2024, potential demand for express purchases will rise from 886 thousand households in 2023 to 980 thousand households. There are two knots to be unravelled: the stability of incomes, in a phase in which a slight worsening of the labour market cannot be ruled out, and the re-establishment of less prudent and selective conditions for access to credit.

According to data from the Inland Revenue, the share of individuals who purchased homes using a mortgage loan exceeds 44%, a figure that is up from last quarter. The share of purchases of first homes increased to around 73% in Q3 2024, and only 7.6% of the homes purchased were new builds.