Gate-away: Homes for sale in Italy, 10% Cheaper Than Last Year

From the seller's point of view, the property price decrease doesn't leave home owners full of joy, but from the buyer's point of view, well, it's completely a different matter. Because it is true that prices of homes for sale in Italy haven't had the fall that other countries such as Spain, the US and UK have seen, but it is also true that there are some properties that are for sale at 10-12% cheaper than the previous year.
This works as a general rule for all the Italian territory, although the best deals must be sought on the field, road by road.

“Prices of bigger properties decrease, whereas smaller sized homes hold, helped by the ever growing number of single people and by a slight upswing of the demand for investment properties” says the intelligent department of the property group Gabetti. “In cities with a poorer social fabric such as Turin, Naples or Bari, cheaper properties have suffered the most, whereas cities such as Milan and Florence have seen a price decrease for properties in semi-central areas. However, prestigious and more expensive properties have better hold the price as they have a higher end target”.

In 2008, more than the prices, have decreased the number of transactions. According to a report of the Agenzia del Territorio (Land Registry Office) the number of transactions had been 686,000, 15% less than the previous year. What happened in reality was that the home sellers preferred to wait rather than cutting down the selling price whereas many potential buyers renounced to go on with the purchase, either because of the difficulties to obtain a mortgage or because they decided not to get into debits or to post pone the expense. In fact, in 2008, the purchases linked to a mortgage have decreased by 26.8% compared to 2007.

The current home market scenario awards the buyers, but at one condition: to be a cash buyer! The most favored by the situation, in fact, are the buyers who can afford not to get a mortgage to buy a home, or at least to keep the mortgaged part below 50% of the property value, as banks are still cautious with mortgages.

Nowadays cash buyers have 2 advantages; The first one is that the current big property offer allows potential buyers to view several types of homes, providing a more precise idea of the local market, plus it gives the opportunity to better negotiate the price; The second advantage is the time factor: there's nothing wronger than rushing when buying a home, maybe fearing that someone else might “steal the deal”.  At the moment, buyers can take their time before buying a home in Italy.

These are good reasons to buy an Italian home, but wouldn't be better to wait a bit longer for a further price decrease? Well, not really. Prices can still decrease further but buying a home is a very important step so if you find your dream home and you get a good deal with the price then there's no point to wait any longer for a further price decrease. Also from the seller's point of view, after all, selling now wouldn't be a great loss, whereas in case the prices go further down, the seller might decide to keep the property and wait for better times.

Meanwhile the home market gives the first signals of a coming back to life as there has been an increase in property viewings, trend confirmed also by Mario Breglia, president of the property intelligence agency Scenari Immobiliari: “We are surveying 90 construction sites and the first figures gives a 30-40% yearly increase of property viewings. Of course not all the viewings will convert into sales but this is definitely a good signal of a renewed interest in buying a home in Italy”.