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If you bought a home in Italy recently or are planning to do so in the near future, you’re not alone.
According to the latest data, home sales (and prices) were on the rise last year – a trend that's expected to continue in 2026.
Italy’s real estate market was long the most stagnant in the EU, but that has been slowly changing. The trend continued last year, as home sales rose across all of Italy's major cities, including a jump of nearly 26 percent in Palermo.
There were major upticks across the peninsula – sales increased by nine percent in Turin, eight percent in Rome, seven percent in both Naples and Bologna, and six percent in Milan.
As demand has increased, so too has price. Homes are forecast to sell for about two percent more this year.
For now, rising demand still outpaces rising costs. But signals are showing it might be time to swoop in on that property you’ve been eyeing.
Property prices and sales rising across Italy's cities, report finds
Speaking of property prices, Italian homes cost €2,196 per square metre on average according to online real estate portal Immobiliare, as of May 2026.
That works out to just under €330,00 for 150 sq m (about 1,615 sq ft). There are significant regional differences, of course – a house of that size would cost more than double that in Milan, while in Palermo you’d pay about 30 percent less than the national average.
But regardless of where you look, there's one thing you'll notice if you're looking for a job once you arrive in Italy - home prices simply don’t add up with Italian salaries, which average around €34,000 in the north and €29,800 in the south and islands.
In Milan – the so-called ‘wage capital’ – the average take-home pay each month is still only about €2,100. In the actual capital of Italy, it’s about €1,900.
This can make getting a mortgage tricky based on salary alone. And if you're renting, in northern cities, exorbitant rental costs mean it won't be enough for a single person to live on. Incredibly, that can be true even if their salary falls into the "higher earner" bracket.
In this report, our editor Clare Speak looks at the wage reality working people need to know about before accepting a job offer in Italy.
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