Italy's Housing Market a Challenge After COVID-19

Italy's housing market situation, despite showing some evidence of recovery before the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, was still fragile. Transaction levels had been increasing, and nationwide house prices after years of contraction had been showing signs of stabilizing. However, the recovery in transactions was only partial and housing prices were still about 18% below the peak Q2 2011 level. At the same time, numbers of building permits experienced a tepid recovery, but with lost momentum last year. More recently, the impact of physical distancing measures caused a significant reduction in transactions.