Italian homes for sale – What to expect from now to 2012

The latest forecasts on the Italian property market trends come from the IV report Ancab Cresme on the market of homes in Italy, showing a complex trend of crisis-recovery-slowdown for the period 2009-2012. The study gives a negative forecast for all 2009 when, according to data, by the end of the year will be sold 695,000 properties against 1 million and 44 thousands homes sold in 2007, getting very close to 1997 when the number of properties sold were 665,000. Another negative sign is represented by the property price which will decrease by 9%. This decrease, according to the report, is mainly given by the strong slow down in demand for properties by families and the difficulties experienced in selling the house to buy another one.

What appears to be peculiar is that, according to the report, the situation is not likely to improve, not even with the new home plan aimed to boost the property and construction market. In fact, the estimates are that in case just the 12% of property owners would use the government home plan to expand their property, this would action €61 billion for 153 million of cubic metres of buildings, would activate 765,000 direct workers and 265,000 indirect workers. The plan shows to have an exceptional potential impact on the construction and the property market, affecting small and medium enterprises, material production companies, material distributors and architects. The effect, says the report, will lead to an exceptional boost for 2010-2011, but to a slow down of the property market in 2012. The slow down would be caused, according to the report, by this simple reason: if we guess that the 30% of the previously mentioned 12% of property owners would use the home plan to build a small apartment of 50/70 square metres instead of just enlarge their homes of a couple of rooms, about 346,000 new properties would be put into the Italian property market which would stop further the already slow market, postponing the recovery.

The report highlights also a change in the demand. In fact, the criteria considered to choose one property instead of another one are changing, now home buyers consider the environmental quality as the most important feature and the 15.3% head their choice towards a detached house with garden whereas the 14.5% prefer to head towards the spaciousness followed by the prestige of the location. This crisis, ends the report, draws a new scenario: along with the Italian property market slowdown there will be a strong change in the demand, hence a strong change in the offer must follow as well.