22/12/2024 - Rome, Italy. A homeless man sleeps in the warmth of his bed under a canopy sheltered from the wind and rain, while the building opposite is reflected in the glass above, late on a Sunday morning in December.
According to the Real Estate Market report on notarial sales and mortgages, published on 19 December 2024 by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), "in the first quarter of 2024, after a substantially stable trend observed in the fourth quarter of 2023, real estate transactions resumed the negative trend observed starting from the third quarter of 2022. The decline is due to the housing sector, while the economic sector increased for the third consecutive quarter, albeit to a lesser extent in the first three months of 2024."
The report highlights the decreasing trend across the country: in the North-East -6.8%, in the Centre -6.2%, in the North-West -5.9%, in the South -4.8% and in the Islands -2.3%.
Last October 7, the Ministry of the Interior published its report on evictions for 2023 and it emerged that, although decreasing, the sentences issued were 39,373 overall, the sentences for innocent default alone were 30,702, a sign that the high rent prices in Italy are one of the most worrying and consolidated emergencies.