Italian Home Sales Held Flat in Q2 2026 While Florence Fell 8.3%

Italy recorded just over 201,000 home sales in the second quarter of 2026, +0.1% on the year, but the city-level spread runs from Naples +4.2% to Florence -8.3%.

Italy's housing market barely moved in the second quarter of 2026. Just over 201,000 homes changed hands nationally, a year-on-year change of +0.1%, according to the quarterly statistics released by the property observatory of the Agenzia delle Entrate on 10 September 2026. After two years in which Italian volumes swung with the cost of credit, a flat quarter is itself the news.

A flat national line hiding a thirteen-point city spread

The aggregate conceals a market pulling in opposite directions. Naples posted the strongest gain among the large cities at +4.2%, followed by Genoa at +2.9% and Bologna at +1.1%. Turin (+0.6%) and Rome (+0.4%) edged up, Milan finished exactly level, and Palermo slipped 2.6%. Florence was the outlier, down 8.3% on the same quarter of 2025 — a gap of nearly thirteen percentage points between the best and worst performer in a single national market.

By macro-region the picture is calmer: the North-West rose 0.4%, the South 0.6% and the Islands 0.1%, while the North-East eased 0.1% and the Centre fell 0.7%. Provincial capital cities taken together gained 0.5%, slightly outperforming the national figure.

New build is the only segment actually growing

Purchases of newly built homes rose 15.6% year on year, while sales of existing stock fell 0.8%. New build still accounts for only 6.4% of all residential transactions, so a double-digit gain in that slice barely shifts the total — but it does show where the demand that remains is going. Buyers with the means to choose are moving toward energy-efficient stock, and the shrinking pool of new completions is meeting them.

Almost half of buyers borrowed, at around 3.6%

Mortgage-financed purchases made up 46.6% of the quarter's transactions, with more than €12 billion of capital lent and an average initial rate of roughly 3.6%. Around 73% of buyers claimed the "prima casa" relief, the reduced-tax regime for a main residence, which is a reminder that this is still predominantly an owner-occupier market rather than an investor one.

That matters for anyone reading the numbers from outside. Glopra's own market data puts Italy's gross rental yield at 6.61% and the twelve-month price change at 5.2% — a combination that looks attractive next to northern Europe, but one built on a national average that spans Milan and rural Calabria.

Two caveats belong with these figures. The observatory counts normalised transactions, which weight each deal by the ownership share actually transferred, so the series is not the same as a simple count of deeds. And flat volumes alongside rising prices describe a thinner market, not a stronger one: fewer trades are setting the price for everyone else.

Sources: Agenzia delle Entrate OMI https://www.agenziaentrate.gov.it/portale/statistiche-trimestrali-2026; idealista/news Italia https://www.idealista.it/news/immobiliare/residenziale/2026/09/10/448146-osservatorio-omi-nel-ii-trim-2026-stabile-il-mercato-della-casa-che-cresce-dello

Market data: Italy