The housing market in Italy: which cities are attracting the most interest from buyers?

Real estate in Italy: market overview based on data from the Gabetti Group

The pandemic, inflation and the energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine do not seem to have seriously affected the figures of residential transactions in the first half of 2022 in Italy. In the first 6 months of 2022 there were 400,487 residential transactions, 10% more than in the same period of 2021. Gabetti's research department has reworked the IRS data to give its forecast for the residential real estate market in Italy's main cities in 2022.

“Real estate buying and selling has not disappointed operators' expectations and has withstood the blow so far.”- comments Marco Speretta, CEO of the Gabetti Group, "also thanks to a number of factors that support the sector. The first driver can be found in the fact that, faced with rising energy resource prices and the awareness of the benefits of energy-efficient properties, families need to replace their homes with more sustainable options. This has likely led to a significant portion of first home replacements positively impacting the residential real estate market in Italy. The second factor is the rise that occurred in the first half of the year, mainly in capitals and large cities (+10.4%) compared to smaller towns and villages (+7.7%), where interest from both institutional and private investors is concentrated."

Sales of residential real estate in Italian cities

Among the cities showing a positive trend in buying and selling real estate, we should highlight the following:

Milan grew by +17.5% in the first half of 2022. However, it ranks penultimate among major cities in the second quarter of the year with growth of +3.8% compared to Q2 2021.

Sale villa in Catanzaro with city view 356 348 $

Italy,Catanzaro

5 Bedrooms

3 Bathrooms

183 м²

Sale flat in Venice with city view 291 557 $

Italy,Venice

3 Bedrooms

2 Bathrooms

87 м²

Sale flat in Venice with city view 766 688 $

Italy,Venice

4 Bedrooms

2 Bathrooms

88 м²

Sale villa in Venice with city view 642 506 $

Italy,Venice

6 Bedrooms

2 Bathrooms

237 м²

Rent flat in Costarainer 4 103 $

Italy,Costarainer

3 Bedrooms

2 Bathrooms

108 м²

Sale penthouse in Sirtory 421 138 $

Italy,Sirtory

2 Bedrooms

1 Bathroom

87 м²

The decline in the second quarter suggests that a combination of high sales prices, which are rising well above the national average inMilan, and rising mortgage interest rates have slowed the pace of home sales.

Palermo has grown by +11.9% in the first six months of the year, achieving the highest increase in the second quarter with a growth of +8.8%. In recent years, the city has actively invested in the restoration and revitalization of its historic center, particularly through a pedestrian route that crosses the historic center (Via Roma and Via Maqueda). This, along with property sale prices that are below the national average in Palermo, has rewarded the city in terms of buying and selling trends and property revaluation.

Bologna continues to be a dynamic city with very active demand for buying and selling, closing the first half of 2022 with a +11.5% increase (according to the average level of the second quarter). The city, which has been the largest tertiary center in the northeast for many years, has recently been subject to high tourist demand, increasingly directing investors towards purchasing for investment purposes.

Genoa is showing signs of dynamism in the residential real estate sector, closing the first half of the year with a +5.2% increase compared to the same period last year. Q2 was particularly strong, recording a +6.5% increase compared to Q2 2021. The city is experiencing a moment of revival thanks to the regeneration of the waterfront, which is influencing the stability of sale prices after many years of decline, as well as the activity in buying and selling.

Rome showed excellent performance in the second quarter of 2022 with a growth of +11.1% (along with Bologna, which achieved the best result in the second quarter of 2022), closing the semester with a residential property value increase of +9%.

Real estate in Italy: market overview based on data from the Gabetti Group