The positive cycle continues in the Italian property market

May 21, 2003

The positive cycle continues in the Italian property market20/05/2003 - The positive cycle in the Italian property market, the first signs of which were displayed in the residential segment during 1998, has now completed four years of growth in terms of quality as well as quantities and values.
On average, large urban areas showed substantial nominal and real price increases for the various types of properties during the four-year period 1998-2002 (see tables 1 and 2 in the in-focus section).

A comparison restricted to new houses reveals a 27.4% increase in nominal terms and a 15.9% increase in real terms in the same period.
While large urban areas saw a substantial fall in real values during the critical phase, small urban areas were not affected by the crisis. Like larger cities, medium-sized cities are also showing an excellent performance in terms of prices, 25.3% up in nominal terms and 13.4% up in real terms for new housing (see tables 3 and 4 in the in-focus section). During the same period, the number of transactions increased substantially. The number of housing transactions (the majority in numerical terms) increased by 17.6% from 576,340 in 1998 to the current 677,860.

Gualtiero Tamburini
(Lecturer in Industrial Economics at the University of Bologna and scientific director of the Osservatorio sul Mercato Immobiliare di Nomisma)

A more detailed analysis of the Italian property market is published in issue 2/2003 of Tile Italia, which came out at the end of April.Table 1 and 2tabTamburini1e2.pdfTables 3, 4 and chartstab art Tamburini.pdf