_Lake Como Leads Italian Prime Residential Index

Transparency, or the lack of it in Italy’s property market, has long been a major hurdle for investors, owners and buyers when trying to gauge price performance and obtain accurate valuations.

Unlike in the UK, where the Land Registry publishes transactional data for the entire housing market, sales data is not freely available. This void means vendors’ pricing can be unrealistic and buyers’ offers overly optimistic, resulting in protracted negotiations.

To address this knowledge gap, we are pleased to announce Knight Frank’s new Italian Prime Residential Index in our Italy Insight 2017 Report.

Mirroring the same repeat-valuation methodology adopted in our other global markets, we have produced a valuable and unrivalled tool enabling, for the first time, the tracking of prime residential prices across 15 of Italy’s top second-home destinations.

The results of our inaugural index underline the extent to which significant regional variations persist. The price of a prime property in Italy declined by 5.5% on average in 2016 but more than 14 percentage points separate the strongest and weakest-performing Italian market.

Lake Como leads the rankings, with prices rising 1.2% year-on-year. Good accessibility via Milan, its proximity to the Swiss border, and the Lake’s popularity with both Italians and overseas buyer has shored up prices.              

The overall narrative is one of an improving market. The country’s major cities – Rome, Milan, Florence and Venice, all sit within the top half of the rankings and all have seen their rate of decline slow significantly in the last two years.

For the full analysis read our Italian Prime Residential Index, extracted from our Italy Insight 2017 publication.

For more information on the Italian property market or to discuss any property requirement you might have please contact Rupert Fawcett