In March 2014, the value of financial assets held by Italian households reached 3.858 billion euros, recovering what had been lost during the crisis. The increase in the value of financial wealth is explained both by the positive return that households have obtained from the portfolio and by a moderate increase in new investments.
This broader ability to invest resources in financial assets, in addition to being the result of greater savings, is also the result of the new trends that are driving household investment decisions: housing has become a less profitable investment, with little liquidity, more risky, as well as being complex to manage. There is an interest of households in shifting part of their wealth from the real estate sector to the financial sector.
In March of this year, the value of financial assets held by Italian households reached 3.858 billion euros, fully recovering what had been lost during the crisis.
Despite the difficulties of recent years, Italians are still rich in international comparison, with a per capita value of financial assets exceeding 65 euros, while the French and Germans stop at around 63, the Spaniards at 40.
In Italy, the recovery in the value of financial wealth is mostly explained by the positive return that households have obtained from their portfolios. Furthermore, in recent years there has also been a gradual increase in new investments, despite the persistent stagnation of incomes.
This broader ability to invest resources in financial assets, in addition to being the result of greater savings, is also the result of the new trends that are guiding the investment decisions of households, to adjust the composition of overall wealth, both financial and real, to the changed external context.
The house has become a less profitable investment, less liquid, more risky, as well as being complex to manage. We are therefore witnessing an interest of households in shifting part of their wealth from the real estate sector to the financial sector, thus helping to explain the recovery of the value of financial assets.
A process that is only just beginning, but could continue in the future, albeit slowly. To assess its extent, it must be remembered that the real estate market still manages to mobilize a still significant flow of resources: in 2013, just over 400 sales generated a turnover estimated at almost 70 billion euros.
Attachments: Focus no. 32 – 09 October 2014.pdf
