ROME – The Italian residential market has registered almost 750.000 transactions in 2021, recording an increase in home sales of + 34% over the previous year. Among the large cities, the leading increases compared to 2020 can be observed in Genoa and Rome, respectively + 32.2% and + 31.4%. These are just some of the insights contained in the Residential real estate report made by the Real Estate Market Observatory of the Revenue Agency in collaboration with ABI, the Italian Banking Association. The report, published today, also contains an in-depth analysis of the index of Affordability, a measure that photographs the evolution over time of the possibility for families to purchase houses, and the various factors that influence it.
The housing market in Italy – As already said, in 2021 the residential market registered 748.523 sale transactions. This number confirms the positive trend recorded starting from 2014 and interrupted only by negative data registered in 2020 (-7.7%), due to the onset of the pandemic emergency. Furthermore, the increase in buying and selling houses has been registered in every geographical area of the country, everywhere exceeding 30% compared to 2020 and 20% compared to 2019.
The situation region by region and in the main cities – Lombardy is the region with the greater number of transactions recorded, over 159 thousand, but Molise is the region with the largest increase in the number of home sales, with a 42.3% growth, followed by Liguria (+ 38.1%) and Calabria (+ 37.9%). Among the big cities, Rome, Italy’s capital and largest city, shows a + 31.4% homes trades in 2021, but is Genoa on the top with a + 32.2% increased on 2020, followed by Florence, + 28.9%, and Turin, + 28.2%. Naples also did well.
The Affordability Index – This index summarizes various factors, disposable income, house prices, trends and mortgage interest rates, that all together affect the average household’s aptitude to buy a house at the average market price, by taking out a mortgage. The higher the value of the index, the easier it is to acquire a house from the family by taking out a mortgage. That said, during 2021, the affordability of families to buy a house by resorting to a mortgage has remained substantially stable.
Stefano Latini
