The crisis seems to really be behind us. Sales of homes in 2016 registered a much more decisive increase compared to the first recoveries seen in 2015 and 2014. Last year 533,741 apartments and houses changed hands in the residential market. In percentage terms, that was an increase of 18.9% compared to the previous 12 months, while the value of sales rose from €76 billion to €89 billion (+17.4%).

These are the numbers in the 2017 report on the residential sector by the Italian Revenue Agency’s observatory on the real estate market, in collaboration with Italian banking association ABI, presented yesterday in Rome. A two speed recovery in terms of geography. The boost in transactions in the residential market is stronger in the central-northern areas, with Veneto leading growth (+23.1%), followed by Lombardy (+21.4%). Meanwhile growth is running at slower rates in the southern regions of the peninsula, particularly in Calabria (+10.8%) and Molise (+7.8%).