The report shows that residential sale volumes decreased by 15.1% in 2008 and the strongest decrease started last October, after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. To be affected by the crisis are also the prices of properties for sale in Italy , although without the free fall which has been registered in the markets in Europe and in the US, that, for the first time after a decade, have decreased by 2.2% for new properties and 2.4% for resale properties.
The fact that in Italy there has never been a huge number of new developments as in other country such as Spain along with the fact that Italian families traditionally have a low level of personal debts helped the property values to hold the crisis much better than in any other countries. In fact, the 2008 negative trend is the first one since 1998.
Also the selling time has lengthened: in 2008 it took an average time of 6 to 7 months to sell a house and an average price discount of 12% for resale properties and 9% for new properties.
Nomisma expects the sale volumes to fall by another 8% to 10% during 2009, bringing prices of property in Italy down to 7% or 8%.
But within the general decrease of sale volumes there is an interesting +7% of buyers who decide not to go to a bank to get a mortgage but prefer to buy cash.
In fact, the report says, "the decrease of properties bought through mortgages has been much stronger than the general decrease of sale volumes: the number of people who don't buy a house through a mortgage grows significantly and goes from 50.6% in 2007 to 57.3% in 2008".
The negative trend of the market we are currently seeing is likely to be influenced by the strict rules adopted by the banks to finance the property buyers. In fact, in Italy, buying a home is still considered as one of the favorite form of investments, especially in turbulent times as the ones we are experiencing, when other form of investments are perceived as unsafe. This, along with the government's efforts to loose the bank's rules to distribute the credit to home buyers, will make the Italian property market to stabilize in 2010.
Also the new package of incentives meant to relaunch the investments in housing developments and renovation is expected to boost the property sector, especially if it will be linked to the use of environmentally friendly materials and the installation of solar panel or any other system meant to reduce the environmental impact.
The fact that the prices of homes in Italy have hold better than in other countries, the government's efforts to kickstart the market, plus the fact that the global economy will see an upswing, likely in 2010 as said by the IMF, make the experts think that 2009 is a good time to invest in property in Italy.
