ROMA (ITALPRESS) – The Italian real estate market continues to grow in 2025. Residential sales increase by +6.5% compared to 2024, reaching approximately 767 thousand transactions, while housing prices increase by +2.2%. At the same time the rental market is strengthened, with average fees increasing by +7% and a growth of +3% in the number of contracts. This is what emerges from the Report FIAIP Monitora Italia, elaborated by the Centro Studi FIAIP, through the surveys of the associated real estate agents, in collaboration with ENEA and I-Com, that analyzes the trend of the real estate market 2025, the forecasts for 2026 and the topic of energy efficiency of the buildings. The report was presented at the Nassiriya Hall of the Senate of the Republic by Leonardo Piccoli, President of the FIAIP Study Centre, together with Ilaria Bertini, Director of the Unit for Energy Efficiency of ENEA, Franco D’Amore, Vice-President I-Com, and Angelo Peppetti, Head of Credit ABI, with the analysis and final comments of Fabrizio Segalerba, National President of FIAIP, of Foreign Affairs The 2025 marks a phase of consolidation of the Italian real estate market. Overall residential trades recorded an increase of +6.5% compared to 2024, confirming a still solid housing demand. At the same time it also increases interest in the purchase of properties for investment and second homes. A figure confirms the resumption of the volumes of exchange, supported by the improvement of the climate of trust of families. At the base of this are the substantial reduction in inflation and, even more, the trend reversal of the monetary policy of the ECB, which has fed the confidence in the market and facilitated access to credit, in particular for the first house mortgages (+10%) also thanks to the confirmation of the Consap Guarantee Fund, for certain social groups.
The most purchased property type remains the three-room apartment used in the semi-central area, demonstrating how the purchase of ‘to live’ housing is predominant, but with not too large dimensions seen the progressive demographic decline.
Among the main Italian cities there are increases of the real estate values that exceed the national average of 2.2% in Rome, Naples, Florence, Turin, and Milan, confirming the dynamism of the metropolitan areas with a strong tourist, university and work vocation.
The rental market continues to show a strong tension between demand and supply. In 2025 the average fees increase by +7%, while the number of contracts increased by +3%. The demand is mainly concentrated on two-roomed flats and three-room flats in central and semi-central areas, with a growing spread of agreed fees, which recorded an increase of +8% on an annual basis. According to the report, the rental market is experiencing a structural transformation: short and transitory leases grow, student contracts and facilitated formulas, while ordinary long-term rentals are more difficult.
The report also highlights how some Italian cities present particularly high levels of profitability from lease. Among the main urban markets Genoa +7.5% and Palermo +7% recorded gross returns exceeding 7%, followed by Verona and Bari with values around 6.5%, confirming the increasing interest of investors towards the residential destined for the lease. Signals of recovery also for the non residential. A significant rebound, after several less signs, also emerges for the non-residential sector. In the last trimester of 2025 there are positive data in the trades of shops (+4.2%), offices (+5.6%) and sheds (+4.9%), which lead to a total result in 2025 regarding the previous year of + 7.4% (negotiations), +3.3% (officials) and +3.65% (capannoni).
This is an important signal, because it shows how recovery does not only concern the housing market but also interests segments closely linked to economic vitality, production and services. In addition to the positive signs of the market, new social issues emerge. It increases the so-called ‘grey country’ of living, consisting of families, young couples and workers who cannot access either the free market or public building. The housing demand is increasingly concentrated in large cities and urban areas with greater economic and employment dynamism, while many peripheral territories are likely to reduce demand and a less residential attraction. In 2025 it improves the appreciation for the energy quality of the property, despite approximately 75% of the Italian real estate is still obsolete and inefficient. Energy quality is passing from a hidden characteristic to a clear attribute, able to increasingly affect the value of real estate purchase. Almost 70% of operators report the need for more advanced quotation tools, able to adequately enhance the energy prize of the restored and high efficiency properties (‘green restructured’). At the same time, the less performing energy classes continue to represent the prevailing share of the real estate analyzed. The buildings in the classes E, F and G constitute approximately 61% of the terraced houses and reach up to 71% in the case of studios and three-room apartments, with a substantially stable trend compared to 2024. However, there are some variations in the distribution of trades by type of property: compared to the previous year, transactions relating to two-roomed flats and one-family villas increase by about 6 percentage points, while the types of housing of intermediate dimensions decrease slightly.
There are also significant differences in the distribution of energy classes according to the location of buildings. In the suburban areas, the properties sold mainly belong to the less performing classes (E, F and G) and the share of the most efficient buildings (A and B) reaches just 5%. In the areas of value, however, the percentage of properties in the higher energy classes is approaching 50%, confirming that the energy quality is becoming increasingly a factor of valorisation of the real estate. Real estate agents report how the Energy Performance Certificate (APE) is perceived more and more by buyers as a useful tool to orientate towards less energetic homes, while still not representing a decisive factor in purchasing choices. The market today is an evident asymmetry: the demand shows an increasing attention to the energy quality of the buildings, while more than 54% of the sellers are still unable to properly recognize and value the weight of the energy class in the determination of the price or in the preparation of the property for sale. This situation is also linked to the lack of stable measures and incentives over time. Credit and green loans are still fragmented and little known by buyers, while many banking institutions doubt that the market for energy restructuring guarantees a sufficient economic return, often creating a vicious circle that risks curbing investments in energy requalification.
Moreover, in 2025, the impact of the energy quality of the property on the sale price is growing: 91,44% of the operators detect an increase in the market value of the efficient properties post Superbonus. An unequivocal signal that will have concrete effects on the evolution of the lists in the coming years. For 2026 the report previews a phase of stabilization of the residential real estate market with moderate growth, supported by conditions of access to credit progressively more favorable than the previous years and from a housing demand that remains structurally solid. To support the market also contributes the increasing interest in investment purchases and second homes, a phenomenon that in recent years has shown a significant dynamic especially in the main urban areas and territories with greater tourist attraction. In this context it is estimated for 2026 a growth of residential trades between +1.5% and +2%, accompanied by an increase of real estate values around +2%, a sign of a market that tends to consolidate the levels reached in 2025. In the housing sector, contracts are expected to increase by approximately +3%, with an additional average increase of the fees around +4%, dynamic reflecting the persistent imbalance between housing demand and supply available in the main urban areas. Even the non-residential sector – shops, offices and sheds – expects moderate growth: the number of contracts is estimated to rise by about +1%, with expected real estate values and canons growing around +2%.
The prospects remain therefore overall positive, but inserted in an economic and international context that requires special attention. In fact, 2026 opens in a global scenario characterized by elements of uncertainty related to geopolitical tensions and the trend of energy markets. Recent escalation in the Middle East area is already producing effects on energy prices and global economic expectations. The evolution of these factors is unlikely to affect inflation, money cost and household trust, variables that represent key elements for the performance of the real estate market in the coming months. From the answers of FIAIP members to the survey also emerges the need to make the building process more efficient and organized, in order to contain the impact of the increase of the costs of building materials, grown of approximately 27% in the last three years. Reducing the cost of real estate is a fundamental condition for restoring a balance between market values and real capacity for access to the house of families, while helping to support the processes of urban regeneration and redevelopment of the existing real estate.
“The prospects for the Italian real estate market in 2026 remain altogether positive – says Leonardo Piccoli, President Centro Studi FIAIP – although in an economic and political context still characterized by some uncertainties. According to the analysis of the Centro Studi FIAIP, housing demand will continue to support the residential sector, especially in large cities and urban areas with greater economic and employment dynamism. Great attention in 2026 to the ability to access the house in particular for young couples, a question that if not properly addressed by the legislator could increase social inequalities in the country”. “Two elements seem important to me to emphasize, among the many interesting ideas that emerge from the relationship. The first theme – says Franco D’Amore, Vice-President I-Com – is marked by the end of an extremely generous public incentive phase to the energy restructuring of housing, concerns an increasing and qualified involvement of the world of finance in the match of the energy efficiency of the existing real estate park. The second issue concerns the relationship between energy poverty and energy quality of buildings, above all, as evidenced by the study, in the periphery zones or the extreme periphery, which would require the landing of specific intervention measures both nationally and locally.” “A significant figure – says Ilaria Bertini, Director of ENEA’s Energy Efficiency Department – is undoubtedly the reduction, compared to last year, of the impact that energy performance records as a driver of the demand for real estate. The propensity to buy a property in high energy class, even according to agents, is mainly affected by the difficulty of correctly assessing the relationship between costs and benefits of efficiency. As ENEA we are involved in multiple areas to make a contribution to the correction of these asymmetries. I emphasize in particular our role as national coordinator of the European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition initiative, aimed at increasing the scale of private investments in energy efficiency. This project will complement the many activities provided by the National Information and Training Programme for 2026 to promote the culture of multiple benefits of energy efficiency.”.
“The Italian real estate market continues to demonstrate a remarkable capacity for resilience and adaptation to economic and social changes. The data that emerge from our Observatory – says Fabrizio Segalerba, National President Fiaip – gather an area that remains one of the pillars of the national economy and which continues to represent, for millions of families, the main instrument of stability and investment in the long term. In addition to the signs of growth and consolidation of the market, however, there are some structural issues which today require a broader reflection and, above all, an updated legislative intervention. In particular, the rental market is experiencing a profound transformation: changing housing needs, increasing working mobility, changing family models and increasing demand for flexible housing solutions. It is therefore necessary to start a season of revision of the legislation on rentals that allows to adapt the legal instruments to the current standards of the market, guaranteeing balance between the rights of the owners and the protection of the tenants. Another major theme is the energy redevelopment of the real estate. Italy has one of the most extensive and dated building heritage in Europe and the challenge of energy transition is an extraordinary opportunity to combine economic development, environmental sustainability and quality of living. However, it is essential that this process does not leave behind the most fragile suburbs and social groups, which often live in less efficient buildings and with less investment possibilities.” “For this reason – President Fiaip Fabrizio Segalerba concludes – it is necessary to pay attention to what is more and more often referred to as the ‘grey country’ of living: families and workers who cannot access the free market or public housing systems and who risk being excluded from the main housing policies. On this front we consider it essential to open a constructive confrontation with the legislator. As FIAIP we are ready to make available to the institutions the patrimony of skills and knowledge of the market matured by the real estate agents throughout the national territory. Our observatory was born with this objective: to offer concrete data, analysis and proposals to help build more effective living policies, capable of combining market development, urban quality and right to home”.
– photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
