Houses, sales up in 2024

The good performance in 2024 certified the growth in residential home sales, up 1.3% to 720,000. Trade is therefore growing again, with an estimated value of around EUR 114 billion. Now the wait is on for the data for the first quarter of 2025, which will indicate the trend for this year.

The 'Immobiliare Residenziale' (Residential Real Estate) report compiled by the Agenzia delle Entrate's Osservatorio del Mercato Immobiliare (Omi) in collaboration with the Associazione Bancaria Italiana (Abi) in relation to 2024 also highlights an analysis of mortgages disbursed and the housing affordability index for Italian families. "There has been an evolution of the ratio over the years," said Gianni Guerrieri, central director of the Agenzia delle Entrate's Osservatorio Mercato Immobiliare e Servizi Estimativi.

"Last year the increase in buying and selling was most pronounced in the South, up 2.6 per cent, while in the North East and the Centre the growth was around 1.5 per cent. In the North West and the Islands, similar values are observed in 2023," the report states.

In 2024, Lombardy once again confirmed its position as the region with the highest number of purchases and sales during the year (over 151,000); however, it is Abruzzo that has the highest growth rate (+9.2%). It is followed by Friuli-Venezia Giulia (+6.4%) and Molise (+6%). Among large cities, on the other hand, we find Genoa at the top (+3%), followed by Rome (+2%), Turin (+1.6%) and Bologna (+1.4%). As far as the rental market is concerned, the number of homes rented out under registered contracts in 2024 amounts to just over one million, slightly down on 2023 (- 0.6%).

If we want to break down on a territorial level, those 114 billion euro representing the total value of last year's real estate purchases and sales, we can see that more than 57% of the turnover relates to purchases of homes located in the North, 65.5 billion euro, while almost 27 billion euro, 23.4%, relates to homes purchased in the Centre, and 22 billion euro, just over 19.2%, relates to exchanges of residences in the South and the Islands.