Home buying without a mortgage is on the rise in Italy: who is buying and why

Houses are still being bought in Italy, and not only by mortgage. In 2025, requests for loans to purchase a property grew by more than 19%, according to Experian's surveys, while credit disbursements to households already increased by 30.4% in the first months of last year, according to data from Assofin, Crif and Prometeia.

Despite this growth, a significant proportion of sales still take place without recourse to financing. Between January and June, in fact, just over one in two homes (51.4%) was bought in Italy entirely in cash, according to Tecnocasa's latest survey. This is a high share, accounting for more than half of the purchase and sale market, which is also slightly down on the previous year, when it exceeded 55%.

The majority of purchases and sales without financing relate to the purchase of a main home (59%), but the proportion of those buying for investment also continues to grow, now standing at 30%. The percentage of purchases of second homes is also smaller (11%), but rising compared to previous years. The identikit of the typical mortgage-free buyer is that of a person with good capital availability, who looks at property as an investment tool or as an asset to be used but not for primary use. During the period of sharply rising interest rates, purchases without a mortgage (which came to represent between 50% and 60% of the total in that period) helped to support the market, also on the price front.

Liquidity, on the other hand, is not lacking, especially among those who buy as a couple or have had time to accumulate substantial savings. It is no coincidence that those who buy with their own capital are mostly aged between 45 and 54 (24.8%). The presence of the under-34s is more limited, accounting for 17.3% of the total number of transactions, while the over-65s make up a marginal share at 16.6%. From the point of view of the household, those buying without recourse to credit are mainly couples and families, who accounted for 66% of purchases and sales in the first months of the year. Singles, penalised by a lower financial capacity, on the other hand, stop at 34% of transactions.

Foreigner influence