The latest report by the Agenzia del Territorio, Italy’s equivalent of the Land registry, highlights regional differences in sale volumes
The Italian property market has slowed down but each area of the country moved at different paces, according to the latest report by the Agenzia del Territorio, Italy’s equivalent of the Land Registry.
The Agenzia has access to the most comprehensive property data in Italy. The 2009 report, published last Friday, analyses sale volumes, stock and prices for 2008 and while the overall trend painted by its figures reserves no suprises—like much of the world, Italy is experiencing a property downturn—it also shows that some areas of the country are proving stronger than others.
Italian property sales went down by about 15% in 2008, going back to 2001 levels. The drop in demand was most noticeable for small to medium homes, which, however, remain the most popular in Italy. Studio flats by contrast, saw the smallest decrease, followed by large properties.
The decline in sales happened throughout the country, but was more marked in the North East than anywhere else. Volumes in the area went down by 17.3%. Conversely, Southern Italy and the Islands proved more resilient, recording decreases of 11.6% and 11.7% respectively.
However, the ratio between sales and property stock, which measures how hot the property market is at any given time, was better in the North East (2.46%) than in the South (1.66%), showing that the northern market, though slower, responds more quickly to trends.
From North to South, though, big cities and provincial capitals performed better than the rest. In particular, the drop in sales was most significant in small to medium municipalities with a population of 5,000 to 25,000 (down 16.5%) whereas all the other groups saw a decline of between 14.2% and 14.5%. Among the cities, Turin experienced the greatest drop (19.5%) and Florence the smallest (0.8%).
In most locations, prices failed to catch up with the slowdown in demand. By year’s end, they had gone up by a nominal 2.9% (which is a decrease in real terms, as the annual inflation rate was 3.3%).
However, the rise mostly took place in the first half of the year, with the second half showing stable or even slighty decreasing numbers. The growth was slowest in the North East of the country (1.1%) and highest on the Islands (5.1%), and, throughout Italy, big cities and provincial capitals saw a smaller price increase than other municipalities.
