A study by the Tecnocasa group has confirmed what has been in the air for some time: despite the problem of expensive housing, the real estate market is not in crisis, on the contrary it is more alive than ever. In fact, according to the report, the sales take place in record time, a sign of a very high demand against an offer that doesn’t always manage to go hand in hand.
To tell the truth, the fact that houses are sold very quickly reflects a bit the general trend of the Italian real estate market, so much so that, according to the study, sales times in January 2023 are decreasing throughout Italy. For the big cities, it even reached an all-time low, with an average residence time on the market of only 104 days. Milan and Bologna lead the ranking, almost halving this figure, which records respectively 55 days in Milan and 50 in Bologna. With only one significant difference: in the shadow of the Madonnina the figure is up by 2 days compared to a year ago, while in the Emilian capital the figure is down by a good 22 days. Bologna, together with Bari, is confirmed as the city in which the times have contracted the most. For reference, in the Apulian capital the average selling time was 153 days in 2022, and it became 121 in 2023.
As for the other Italian cities, in Palermo it takes 134 days to sell a property: the Sicilian capital is in last place in the ranking, preceded by Genoa, where a house is on the market for an average of 130 days. All the other main Italian provinces are within the band delimited by the 55 days of Milan and the 130 of Genoa.
The situation and numbers in the suburbs
The situation in the suburbs of large Italian cities reflects an important fact: families don’t want them that much, but often due to force majeure they are forced to “accept” them as a compromise between lower costs and overall excellent quality of life. Florence is the Italian city in which the average time of a property in the suburbs is less on the market: only 116 days (and the figure is even down by 6 days compared to 2022!). Verona follows with 121 days, but as an average figure, those who decide to sell a house in the suburbs of the main Italian cities must take into account 130 days. A decidedly strengthened figure compared to 2022, when there were 138 days.
The interpretation of the data
Data analysis is always key: in this case, what do these numbers mean? They show a really interesting fact, that is, those who decided to buy a house in January 2023 did so by speeding up the purchase decision. The reasons are of two types: if on the one hand the offer on the real estate market is decidedly low, on the other interest rates are constantly increasing, and the risk of having to pay the mortgage more than initially expected has often caused as a bogeyman, convincing future owners to conclude the deal in the shortest possible time.
Everyone to buy a house immediately, therefore, including investors, who have also lowered the average purchase times to prevent the liquidity they have set aside from being eroded by ever-increasing inflation.
