Home, sales good in 2025, new construction falls

Italy's bricks and mortar industry ended 2025 confirming a higher-than-expected vitality. Despite a complex macroeconomic scenario and fluctuating interest rates, data from the last three months of last year provide positive feedback. The Agenzia dell'Entrata's Observatory of the Real Estate Market (OMI) for the fourth quarter of 2025 shows national growth of 0.4% in purchases and sales, with more than 218,000 homes changing hands.

An increased aggregate result that hides, however, a two-speed Italia: the non-papal municipalities are the driving force (+1.3%), while the large urban centres mark a contraction of 1.7%, yet another sign of a progressive shift towards secondary cities and hinterlands, thanks to the skyrocketing prices of some large cities. Among the eight main metropolises, the palm of the most dynamic city goes to Palermo, which closed the last quarter with a leap of 10.9%. Bologna (+7.3%) and Rome (+4.8%) followed at a steady pace. On the other hand, Milan's race came to a halt, with a 2.3% drop, while Florence continued to suffer with a 7.6% drop and Turin posted a slight -0.5%.

While purchases and sales are proceeding cautiously, the rental market is showing good dynamism, especially in large urban areas such as Rome and Milan. Almost 278,000 new contracts were registered in the fourth quarter (+0.6%), with total rents up by 5%. What stands out is the success of agreed rental contracts, which grew by 8.4% nationwide. The borderline case is Milan: here subsidised rents have increased by 88.3%, a vertiginous growth triggered by the new territorial agreement signed in July 2023, which has made this formula extremely attractive to both owners and tenants in a city with otherwise prohibitive rents.

Aggregating the data from inside 2025, the latest analyses by Tecnocasa and Rexer on data from the Inland Revenue Agency confirm the positive momentum of the housing market. The year that has just ended recorded a total of around 767,000 purchases and sales with a growth of 6.6% compared to the previous year, with sales prices rising by an indicative 3% nationwide. "The market remains at the level of the highest volumes recorded in the last twenty years, also favoured by mortgages that have become progressively 'cheaper' over the course of the year," explains Monica Regazzi, cfo of Rexer.

In 2025 there were approximately 334,000 purchases and sales assisted by mortgage loans, 46% of total transactions (in 2024 there were 283,000, or 41.7%). Among large cities, Palermo once again recorded the best performance, rising from approximately 6,500 to over 7,140 sales (+9.8%). Sales were also up in Turin (+6.8%), Rome (+6.3%), Genoa (+5.7%), Bologna (+5.3%) and Naples (+3.4%). Still a minus sign instead for Florence (-3.8%), down for the third year in a row, while Milan on an annual basis showed an upward trend (+4.9%).