House prices (provisional)

The House Price Index (HPI) measures the evolution of market prices of all residential properties that are purchased by households (flats, detached houses, terraced houses, etc.), both new and existing, independently if bought for own-occupancy or as an investment.

In 2018, the entire HPI time series has been revised to reflect the shift to a new database provided by Tax Office that improves the accuracy of the indices and their timeliness. Moreover, the new data source allows the production of HPIs for geographical areas and for a few big towns: these new indicators are disseminated starting from the second quarter data (for details refer to Italian version).

According to preliminary estimates, in the second quarter of 2018:

• the House Price Index (IPAB) increased by 0.8% compared with the previous quarter and decreased by 0.2% in comparison to the same quarter of the previous year (it was -0.5% in the first quarter of 2018);
• prices of new dwellings increased by 1.7% compared to the previous quarter and by 1.6% with respect to the same quarter of 2017 (up from +1.0% observed in the last quarter); prices of existing dwellings increased by 0.7% compared to the previous quarter and decreased by 0.7% with respect to the same quarter of the previous year.