Residential, rental demand falls but rents remain on the rise

The Italian residential market closes the first half of 2025 with a clear picture: rents continue to grow, while Italians are returning to home buying. According to the six-monthly Immobiliare.it Insights Observatory, between January and June rents increased by 5.5 per cent, more than double the increase in sales prices, which stood at +2.1 per cent.

In absolute terms, rents reached an average of EUR 14.3/sqm, while house prices for sale rose to an average of EUR 2,110/sqm. However, the sharp rise in rents is gradually cooling demand for rentals, which has fallen by 9.2% compared to six months ago, with a marked drop in large urban centres (-21%), while smaller towns show stability.

"As early as the first half of last year, the real estate market had already shown the first signs of change, with a gradual shift in users' interest from rentals to buying and selling," explains Luke Brucato, Chief Strategy Officer of Immobiliare.it Insights. "Twelve months on, this trend has been confirmed and consolidated, supported by a number of factors, including in particular the reduction in interest rates. As a result, even those who until recently were reluctant to start buying, due to persistent economic uncertainty, have begun to change their perspective: buying a house has once again become a real possibility, even in large cities".

In contrast to rents, demand for house purchases is growing by 14% compared to the last six months of 2024, a sign of renewed confidence on the part of Italian households, thanks in part to falling interest rates that make purchases more sustainable. Growth is uniform in both large centres (+12.9%) and smaller towns (+13.9%).

At the same time, the supply of properties for sale increased by 4.4 per cent over the six-month period, while the supply of rentals rose by 15.6 per cent, with peaks of 23.4 per cent in large centres, a sign that rising rents are pushing owners to put more properties on the market.