The Italian Housing Market Survey has been released for the second quarter of 2024.
The survey looks at current trends and short-term expectations for the residential real estate market and is conducted by the Bank of Italy together with Tecnoborsa and Agenzia delle Entrate.
According to the Italian Housing Market Survey of a sample of real estate agents conducted between 17 June and 17 July 2024, assessments pointing to price stability continued to prevail strongly in the second quarter of the year. The share of respondents who reported price increases remained a minority and slightly contracted.
Residential demand remained weak: indications on the number of potential buyers in the reference quarter worsened slightly compared with the previous survey. Supply also remained weak, with new listings being broadly unchanged from the first quarter. In contrast, the number of house sales went up both quarter on quarter and year on year, while the average discount on asking prices and the time on market held close to their lowest levels since the survey began.
The rental market continues to be vibrant: the declining supply, partly due to owners' preference for short-term rentals, is flanked by robust demand, which estate agents attributed in part to difficulties in buying property for some categories of buyers, especially in Northern Italian cities. Expectations for the overall national market and for the agents' own market continue to be negative, though the agents' pessimism has lessened compared with a year earlier.
