Cost of housing in Europe: comparison of Italy with other countries.

In this period of inflation and rising interest rates, the real estate market should also be taken into account.

According to the International Monetary Fund, Italy is one of the least risky countries in this sector, if various factors are taken into account, such as household debt, the share of variable mortgage interest rates, price and interest rate changes.

Report by Bnl/Bnp Paribas

The report "Real Estate: Between Growth and Inflation" prepared by Bnl/Bnp Paribas analyzes countries, conditions and expectations in the real estate market.

Despite price growth in Italy in 2019, real real estate prices have turned negative between the end of 2019 and the first quarter of 2022.

Comparison in the eurozone

The study compares house prices in the eurozone, including Germany, Spain, France and Italy. In the last four months of 2022, real estate prices were 43% higher than in 2015.

There was an opportunistic decline in Germany (-5% quarter-on-quarter), the largest since data availability. If we consider only 2022, there is clearly a difference between real estate prices and general prices in Germany. In Italy, on the other hand, the value of housing rose by 2.8%, but with a slight decrease only in the used housing sector (-0.6%), with the value of new housing around +2.7%.

What's in store for us

The forecast for 2023 assumes that prices will remain stable, although the share of transactions with mortgages out of the total number of individuals fell from 51.9% in the first quarter of 2022 to 42.8% in the fourth quarter of the same year.