House prices (provisional) - Q1 2023

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 first quarter of 2023 the HPI (see Italian IPAB) increased by 0.1% compared with the previous quarter and by 1.1% compared with the same quarter of the previous year (it was +2.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022).

The increase on annual basis of HPI was mainly due to the prices of new dwellings, which grew by 5.4% (in acceleration compared to +4.5% in the previous quarter) and, to a lesser extent, to the prices of existing dwellings whose growth decelerated, going from +2.3% registered in the fourth quarter of 2022 to +0.4%.

The increase of HPI occured in a context of a decline of the sales volumes (according to the Observatory of Real Estate Market belonging to Tax Office, the corresponding annual rate of change for the residential sector was -8.3% in the first quarter of 2023, down from -2.1% of the previous quarter).

On quarterly basis, the slight increase of the HPI was only due to the prices of new dwellings, that rose by 1.6% while those of existing dwellings decreased by 0.2%.

Together with the release of HPI for the first quarter of 2023, the updated weights used to compile the indices are also disseminated. In particular, in 2023, the weight of new dwellings amounts to 17.7% (it was about 16.2% in 2022) against 82.3% of the existing ones (it was about 83.8% last year).