House prices, for Milan the lowest growth since 2018. Rome surge

The year 2025 ended with prices of homes rising by 4.0%. But the result was the result of two different dynamics: while existing houses rose 4.7%, new ones advanced by just 0.6%. What weighed particularly heavily was the last quarter of the year with a tendential value (difference with the same period of 2024) ending on negative values (-1.2%): this is the first time this has happened in the last eight years. The picture is provided by the Istat which, as usual with the Ipab (house price index), offers an in-depth analysis of the large municipalities: in Rome the most consistent leap is recorded (+5.1%), while Milan is decelerating with 3.3%, the lowest value since 2018.

First of all, the trend in the last three months of 2025: the price index of homes purchased by households for housing or investment purposes rose by 0.9% compared to the previous quarter and by4.1% compared to the same period in 2024. This growth, the Central Statistical Office points out, "can be attributed solely to the prices of existing homes, which rose by 5.2%, accelerating from +4.2% in the previous quarter. The prices of new dwellings, on the other hand, recorded a marked slowdown in their tendential dynamic, which fell to -1.2 per cent': this is the first time in the last eight years that the value has ended up in negative territory.

This brings us to the overall balance sheet for 2025 with opposite dynamics for the two types of housing: after the remarkable leap in 2024 (+7.9%, the highest value since 2018), prices for new dwellings land almost at zero (+0.6%, never so low in the last seven years); for existing buildings, on the other hand, they rise by 4.7%, a value more than double that of 2024 (+2.2%) and a record in the last seven years of surveys.

Focusing on large municipalities, the most pronounced price increases in the latter part of the year were recorded in Milan and Rome, respectively +6.3% and +5.0%. For the Lombard capital, the final surge failed to compensate for a slow trend in the first part of the year (-0.1% and +1.8% in the first two quarters). The result: for the whole of 2025, the city recorded an increase of 3.3%, decelerating from the +5.2% of 2024. To find a lower value one has to go back to 2018 (+3.0%).

In the capital that experienced the Jubilee in 2025, prices were sustained over the 12 months (starting with +6.5% in the first quarter and rising to +5.0% in October-December). The annual average was 5.1%. A leap: this is more than double the value of 2024 (+2.2%) and the peak of the last seven years.