Decrease in residential real estate transactions mainly in Milan: residential real estate market.

Context: The Italian residential real estate market continues to decline: after a decrease of 2.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the same period of 2021, the first three months of 2023 show an additional decrease of 8.3%, making the total number of transactions 166,745 (15 thousand less). According to an analysis by Abitare Co. based on data from the Tax Agency's Real Estate Market Observatory (OMI), metropolitan cities (-10.6%) suffer more in the first quarter of 2023 compared to regional cities (-7.4%). At the regional level, the largest decrease was recorded in the metropolitan cities of the Northwest region (-12.5%), while the only increase was recorded in the regional non-metropolitan cities of the island region (+2.3%).

How are real estate transactions in Italy? In the first quarter of 2023, the largest Italian cities are also experiencing a decline compared to the same period last year, with Bologna (-23.9%) and Milan (-22.9%) showing particularly significant declines.

Predictions for 2023 real estate transactions.

"The trend in Italy's residential real estate market, for the first quarter of this year, confirms the forecasts that were made at the end of last year, namely that 2023 will be a year in which transaction growth will decline, probably throughout the year," said Alessandro Ghisolfi, head of the Research Center at Abitare Co. - Rising mortgage interest rates are affecting families' home-buying decisions, and it seems that the post-pandemic demand for spacious housing is also declining: the number of apartment purchases in general, especially those with more than 100 square meters, is declining. If sales prices are impacted in any way, we are likely to see a downturn in the first half of the year, primarily among older and in-need-of-repair residences. "

Data on real estate transactions in the first quarter of 2023, according to OMI:

• (Here, I have excluded the numerical data to maintain the integrity of the author's work.)