In Europe, in 2014, 70% of families lived in their own home, a high percentage but down by 3 percentage points compared to the maximum peak reached in 2008. In the euro area, the reduction was even more marked (- 5 pp): the share of households owning residence property fell to 67% compared to 72% in 2009 (maximum level).
Particularly marked reductions were recorded in Latvia (-6,3 pp), Iceland (-6), Estonia (-5,6), United Kingdom and Ireland (-5).
The difficult economic situation also affected the percentage of households that bought a property thanks to a mortgage: since 2010 in the EU and in the euro area the share has stopped at around 28% and the difference between the peak years of maximum expansion of mortgage lending and 2014 recorded declines even reaching around 10 pp, as in the case of Norway, Iceland and the United Kingdom.
Conversely, in many economies in Eastern Europe, the percentage of households indebted to purchase a house has significantly increased, with significant increases in Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, countries where, however, the share still remains quite contained. The current recovery in real estate prices in several European countries is expected to be more moderate than experienced in past episodes of cycle restarts. Even for mortgage credit, the indications of the European Commission and the ECB agree in indicating limited growth which should draw on the lessons of the past.
In Italy, the indicators of the real estate market show an uncertain picture: against the improvement of credit granting criteria and a strengthening of the expectations of the demand for mortgage loans, there is still a negative trend in house prices in the fourth quarter (-0,9, 0,4% y/y) and limited growth in the mortgage stock (+35% in February). In our country too, both the share of homeowners and borrowers decreased: the heads of families in the 44-XNUMX age group and the self-employed were the categories most penalised.
