Houses, the sale price discount is growing

Fewer houses are being sold, the Inland Revenue certified a few days ago. And on those that are sold the discount grows, because the 'fork' between the asking price and what the buyer is willing to pay is still growing. "In the second half of 2023, at the Italian level," said Fabiana Megliola, head of the Tecnocasa Group Studies Office, "the average discount applied, compared to a year ago, has increased to -8.3 per cent. The gap between what property owners demand and the final purchase price is therefore widening. We are in a transitional phase of the market which, from a period of strong euphoria, is entering one of greater reflection'.

The percentages change when analysing the different property types. Depending on how old the property is, there is a greater drop for used types (-8.5 per cent) than for renovated (-7.5 per cent) and new types (-4.5 per cent). The former, in fact, almost always require renovation work and, as a result, there is a greater negotiation on the price in the light of the additional costs that will then have to be incurred to modernise the home.

Larger reductions, almost 12 per cent, are evident for the purchase of investment properties that rely on the buyer's purchasing power. On the basis of the types bought and sold, there is an above-average contraction for cheap solutions (-10.2 per cent). -8.5 per cent price decrease for houses on the ground floor. The top floors have smaller decreases (-7.7 per cent). Declines in value of 9.6 per cent are reported for houses sold out of necessity, in fact, significant reductions are accepted to speed up the sale of the property. The data indicated therefore show consistency with the real estate picture that is being drawn.

A further figure, which marks a fatigue in the market. As pointed out a few days ago by the Inland Revenue Agency, the first quarter of 2024 saw a sharp drop in residential purchases and sales, more than double the drop of three months earlier, involving all areas of the country. To be exact, the drop is 7.6 per cent on the first quarter of 2023 and 7.2 per cent on the last quarter of last year, or 155,000 homes sold in the first three months of 2024.