There are nearly 1 million residential properties for sale in Italy (exactly 967,396 residential properties). Of these, 85.9% are managed by real estate agencies, while private individuals manage the remaining 14.1%.
What are the pros and cons of relying on a real estate buying and selling expert, and what are the advantages and risks of concluding the deed between private individuals?
Differences in buying and selling conducted by agencies and private individuals
“Negotiations conducted by agencies are generally concluded faster and with a price closer to the starting price because, unlike private individuals who tend to overprice properties, real estate agents have more experience in the field and technological tools that allow them to do more objective valuations in line with the real market value of the property,” replied Patrick Albertengo, co-founder and managing director of Reopla, commenting on a report done by the company from which it emerges that compared to a national average of 6.4 months to complete a purchase or sale, the time frame drops to 5.8 months when an agency handles it, compared to the 12.2 months needed between individuals.
Similarly, the negotiation margin (understood as the difference between the price of the advertisement and the price of the transaction), on average 8.6 percent, is reduced to 8.4 percent in agency-managed purchases and sales, while it rises to 10.2 percent in negotiations between private individuals, because they start from higher (subjective) prices.
Interest in buying and selling with real estate agencies or between individuals
In general, according to Reopla’s report (which analyzes Italy’s top 15 cities by population), Rome is the Italian city with the highest number of sales, 30,570, of which 24,120 are handled by agencies, followed by Milan with 17,458 sales (of which agencies handle 15,154) and Turin, 13,280 sales (11,819 in agencies). And if Bologna is the city that relies most on agencies (89.4 percent of properties), Messina, on the other hand, is where privately managed negotiations are most frequent (25.2 percent). However, if we focus only on privately entrusted properties, it turns out that these apartments are offered at a price that is, on average, 13% higher than the real market value: the highest surcharges are recorded in Venice (+24.6%), Verona (+19.7%), Rome (+19.2%) and Genoa (+17.1%). In contrast, the slightest difference is recorded in Milan (+5.2%), Trieste (+6.5%), and Padua (+7.7%).
Property type
The trend sees larger properties entrusted to agencies. “Properties entrusted to agencies are mainly those above 145 sq. m. – Across Italy, there are about 311,100 properties exceeding square footage of 145 sq. m.: 88 percent of properties of this type are entrusted to agencies. On the other hand, the highest percentage of properties (17 percent) entrusted to private individuals is recorded where the square footage is less than 50 square meters: this category, however, is also the one with the fewest units for sale nationwide, 62,007 properties,” reads the Reopla report.
The three-room apartment is the most bought by both families and singles. The confirmation comes from Tecnocasa, which explains that the percentages are 33.8 percent and 37.3 percent, respectively, although the lion’s share–compared to all transactions made–still goes to families. The analysis of purchases and sales in Italy through Tecnocasa group agencies showed that in 2022 67.8 percent were concluded by families (couples with or without children), while only 32.2 percent were concluded by singles (a value, however, up from 28.7 percent in 2019).
Reasons for purchase
Compared to 2021, the purchase percentages for investment and vacation homes have increased for families and singles. According to Tecnocasa, families nationwide show a higher propensity to buy vacation homes than singles (8.9 percent vs. 3.7 percent) and prevail in investment purchases (18.3 percent vs. 15.5 percent). The percentages of purchases for investment then grow if only large cities are considered: in this case, families buy for investment in 28.3 percent of cases, while singles stop at 19.1 percent.
