In the first half of this year, the Italian real estate market did not confirm the positive signals that emerged in 2010. This is what emerges from the urban report of the Italian federation of professional real estate agents (Fiaip). The real estate market has resumed the negative trend that began in 2006 and which seemed to have been interrupted last year. The gap between supply and demand remained wide (about 20%) and had an impact above all in the thirteen main city areas of the country, where there was a drop in prices of one and a half percentage points (-1,5%) . On the other hand, this dynamic favored those transactions in which the distance between supply and demand was smaller, especially in peripheral areas.
The analysis of the asset structure of Italian families highlights a growing weakness of the younger families: 8% cannot count on any kind of assets and 42,6% do not own real estate assets (against the average 16,8%). . Approximately 20% of young families (compared to approximately 40% of the total) can rely exclusively on a first home (3,7%) or on a first home and a bank account (19,1%). The possession of other properties or investments and annuities concerns approximately 23% of them, against 36% referring to all households. In fact, over 40% of young families live in a rented house. Italians also struggle enormously to take out mortgage loans. The decline in demand, which began last March, recorded a -14% in July compared to the same month of the previous year, as highlighted by Crif's analyses. Examining the cumulative demand for the first seven months of 2011 and comparing it with the same period in previous years, a negative picture clearly emerges: -9% if compared with 2010, -12% with 2009, -8% with 2008 and - 10% compared to 2007.
