House prices

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 the first quarter of 2016:

• the House Price Index (see Italian IPAB) decreased by 0.4% compared to the previous quarter and by 1.2% in comparison to the same quarter of the previous year (up from -1.7 in the previous quarter);
• prices of new dwellings decreased by 0.4% compared to the previous quarter and by 0.7% with respect to the first quarter of 2015 (7 percentage points higher than that of the previous quarter); prices of existing dwellings declined by 0.4% compared to the previous quarter and by 1.4% with respect to the same quarter of the previous year (0.4 percentage points higher than that of the fourth quarter of 2015).