Escape from the city? In the Covid era it had become a mantra for many Italian citizens whose forced confinement had rekindled the desire for open spaces and interest in homes in rural contexts and small towns. This interest reached its peak in the third quarter of 2020, representing 10.3% of residential contacts in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants compared to the total user requests.
However, three years later, in the fourth quarter of 2023, i data indicate a decline in the desire to move to these areas, with demand for homes in municipalities under 5,000 inhabitants falling to 8.2%. This is even lower than the 9.1% recorded in the first quarter of 2020, before the pandemic began.
This trend of contraction involves three quarters of Italian provinces, with significant drops in contacts regarding small municipalities. For example, in the province of Isernia, the decrease was 20.3%, going from 70.9% to 50.6% of contacts. Other examples include Alessandria (from 44% to 28.7%), Biella (from 51.3% to 36.5%), Asti (from 41.1% to 26.5%), L’Aquila (from 49, 8% to 37.2%), Novara (from 33% to 21.5%) and Trento (from 46.5% to 35.8%).
On the other hand, some provinces have registered an increase in contacts in small municipalities, such as Rovigo (from 19.1% to 25.7%), Nuoro (from 31.5% to 36.5%), Avellino (from 33% to 37.3%), Cremona (from 27.1% to 30 .2%) and Padua (from 3.6% to 6.6%).
Rome, Venice and Florence they maintained a marginal and unchanged weight of contacts since the summer of 2020, at 0.7% and 0.8% respectively. In the province of Milan, contacts in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants represent 1.2% of the total, a slight increase compared to the 1.1% hypothesized in the summer of 2020, while in Naples it went from 0 .6% then to 0.5% now.
There appears to be interest among families in living in these areas also regressed compared to pre-pandemic levels, since in 77 of the 105 provinces monitored the burden of contacts in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants was higher than the current one in the months preceding the start of the lockdown.
In this case the greatest difference is recorded in Benevento, which in winter 2020 recorded 50.1% of contacts in small towns, while now it stands at 29.1%. Followed by Asti (with 42.7% in 2020 and 26.5% currently), Campobasso (37.5% before the pandemic and 24.5% currently). Potenza (33.5% before covid and 22% currently) and Cuneo (55.3% before the pandemic and 44.7% currently).
In Rome, in the first quarter of 2020 small municipalities represented 1.1% of contacts, while currently they represent 0.7%. Milan unchanged compared to the pre-pandemic quarter, with contacts stable at 1.1%.
On the contrary, interest in houses in small towns grew in 23 areas: Belluno (from 50.1% in 2020 to 56.4% currently), Vercelli (from 38.4% to 42.1% currently) and Bolzano (from 21% to the current 24.3%) are the provinces with the greatest increase. In the rest of the areas the increases range from 2.7% in Lodi (from 41% to 43.7%) to 0.1% in Florence (from 0.7% to 0.8%) and Naples (from 0.4%). % to the current 0.5%).
Areas with greater interest in small towns
The geographical and demographic distribution of each province affects the percentage of contacts in small municipalities. For example, in provinces like Aosta, Sondrio and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, contacts in small towns have a greater weight than the provincial total, representing 85.9%, 73.5% and 59.4% respectively. On the contrary, in Trieste, they represent only 0.1% of the total, followed by Bari (0.2%), Naples (0.5%), Rome and Venice (both 0.7%).
For Vincenzo De Tommaso, Head of the Idealista Research Office, “Four years after the outbreak of Covid we can say that the exodus towards rural areas remained only in people’s intentions, but never materialized. This interest was fueled by the availability of more spacious homes at lower prices, often with terraces or gardens, which offered an escape valve during any restrictions. Furthermore, it seemed that teleworking could become a widespread solution, allowing people to move away from large work centers without compromising their performance. However, once the challenges of the pandemic were overcome, many families refocused their attention towards the urban environment, sacrificing extra space in exchange for better amenities. The hybrid telecommuting model, which prevents a permanent transition away from offices, has been a determining factor in many families returning to cities after temporarily considering ‘escape’ from them.”
Data collected and analyzed by idealista/data, idealista’s proptech platform that provides information to real estate professionals to facilitate their strategic decisions.
Covering Spain, Italy and Portugal, it takes advantage of all the parameters of each country’s idealista database, while also integrating other public and private data sources. This allows us to offer a full range of services, including property valuation, investment consultancy, acquisition support and market analysis.
