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.
According to preliminary estimates, in the third quarter of 2020, the HPI (see Italian IPAB) decreased by 2.5% compared with the previous quarter and increased by 1.0% compared with the same quarter of the previous year (it was +3.3% in the second quarter).
The increase on annual basis of HPI was mainly due to the speed-up of the growth of the prices of new dwellings (from +2.7% in the second quarter to +3.0% in the third one). Also prices of existing dwellings recorded an annual positive rate of change equal to +0.7% slowing down from +3,6% of the previous quarter.
The increase of HPI occurred in a context of growth of sales volume, as it was +3.1% the annual rate of change registered by the Observatory of Real Estate Market belonging to Tax Office for the residential sector in the third quarter of 2020, after the previous sharp contraction (-27.2% in the second quarter) due to the measures adopted to contain the spread of Covid-19 which drastically limited the possibility of signing notarial deeds, expecially in April.
The decrease on quarterly basis of HPI was only due to the prices of existing dwellings (-3.2%), while prices for new dwellings increased (+1.1%).
On average, in the first three quarters of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, house prices increased by 2.0%, that is the synthesis of similar dynamics of the prices of new dwellings that increased by 2.2% and of the existing ones that grew by 2.0%.
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