House prices continue to rise in Italy, with the national house price index standing 5.2% higher in the first quarter of this year, compared with the corresponding period a year earlier, statistics body Istat has said.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, house prices were 1.0% higher, the data showed.
Growth rate
The annual rate of growth accelerated from 4.0% recorded in the final quarter of 2025, reflecting continued strength in the country’s residential property market.
The increase was driven by both new and existing homes – prices for new dwellings rose by 6.7% compared with the same period a year earlier, reversing a decline of 1.1% recorded in the previous quarter.
Existing dwellings also recorded annual growth, with prices increasing by 4.8%, although this represented a slight slowdown from the 5.0% annual rise reported at the end of 2025.
Transaction activity
The housing market was supported by an increase in transaction activity, with Italian tax office data indicating that residential property sales volumes grew by 4.4% year on year in the first quarter, compared with growth of 0.4% in the previous quarter.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, however, the performance of new and existing homes diverged. The overall 1.0% increase in the house price index was entirely driven by the existing housing market, where prices rose by 1.5%, accelerating from growth of 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2025.
In contrast, the price of new homes fell by 1.5% during the quarter after increasing by 1.4% in the final three months of last year. Despite this short-term decline, annual growth for new dwellings remained stronger than for existing properties.
Existing dwellings now account for 86.91% of the Italian house price index, up from 82.4% in 2025, while the weighting assigned to new homes has fallen to 13.09% from 17.6%.
The statistical agency also announced a methodological update, with the house price index now rebased to 2025. The previous reference base year was 2015.
Istat added that the Italian house price data release is scheduled for 17 September 2026. Read more here.
