Good news for Italian families. While lending for house purchases slowed down last year, the trend seems to have reversed this year. In the first quarter of 2011 loans amounting to 13.502,32 million euro arrived, showing an increase of 1,28% and a counter value of 170,67 million euro. This is what emerges from the latest publication of the Bank of Italy's Statistical Data.
After the misstep of the fourth quarter of 2010, when a drop of just over 2% was recorded, credit to households is therefore starting to increase again. The value of outstanding mortgages in Italy continues to grow. After the decline in the second quarter of 2008, the increase was progressive until reaching the record volume of 309.711 million euros in the latter first quarter of 2011, thus recording an increase of +1,27% compared to the fourth quarter of 2010 .
This trend in access to credit is accompanied by a slight drop in property values. Based on the analysis of the quotations, carried out by Tecnocasa, in the first half of this year all the large cities have reported downward prices. Compared to the same period of 2010, Bari (-5,6%) and Naples (-2,2%) fell above all. Milan and Rome, on the other hand, closed the first half of 2011 with stable values (-0,4% and -0,2%).
The analysis of the sales carried out by Tecnocasa highlights the prevalence of purchases of main residences (77,4%), followed by those for investment use (18%) and finally by the holiday home (4,6%). The rental market recorded a slight decrease in rents in large cities (-0,1% for two-room apartments and -0,3% for three-room apartments). The demand for rental houses is characterized by a prevalence of requests (48%) among young people (between 18 and 34 years). Those who are unable to buy because they cannot access credit, workers who move and off-site students choose to rent. In fact, those looking for a home for work or study are mainly in the 18-44 age group. More generally, forecasts for the real estate market for 2011 are still oriented towards a further decrease in values between -3% and -1%.
