(Finance) – Loss of purchasing power of families and rise in rates push many to consider renting rather than buying a house, while landlords for their part use rents to supplement income but with greater attention to guarantees on the part of tenants: these are the main findings that emerge from the Observatory Rentals, conducted by Nomisma on behalf of CRIF, in collaboration with Confabitare. The study was carried out for explore the propensity of Italians towards real estate rental solutions and the willingness of owners to rent their homes, trying to identify factors that facilitate or hinder the rental.
For the first six months of 2024, operators expect a decline in the number of saleswhile on the rental side the expectations they are of stability, both for contracts and for fees.
In detail: in 42% of cases tenants find themselves considering renting because one’s current economic condition represents an obstacle when purchasing a home. A condition that is even more relevant in particular for single-parent families and individuals with a presumed low or non-existent income (housewife, unemployed or on redundancy pay, workers and pensioners). For entrepreneurs, managers and employees instead the rental is configured as a temporary solution, while families with children and those equipped with greater economic resources they often opt to rent because they have not yet managed to identify and purchase the property “ideal home”. The share of those who consider renting as a temporary solution is equal to 25.7% of tenants. On the contrary, for some categories, such as single-parent families, pensioners and freelancers, owning a home is not convenient for the expenses to be incurred (maintenance, extraordinary expenses, home insurance…).
The loss of purchasing powerthe erosion of the ability to savings and rising rates applied have effectively eliminated a considerable portion of the potential demand for home purchases with significant consequences on the mortgages granted and on the number of sales. The purchase of a house has thus progressively left the plans of families so much so that, in 2023, the difficulties encountered by families in financing the purchase of a house have caused the 7.3% of demand from purchase to rental, accentuating the pressure on the sector.
Then there are some sociodemographic characteristics which make it more widespread the use of leasing: this is the case, for example, of the number of members of the family unit: 30% of the largest families (5 or more) live in a rented home. On the contrary, families single component find it difficult to purchase a home – probably due to a lack of economic resources, thus turning to a greater extent on the rental market.
In general, one is noted greater propensity to rent for those who ownand more than one dwelling (in addition to that of residence or holiday use), that is those who realistically they purchased the homes precisely for investment purposes and with the intention of making a profit additional economic income. For the 61% of landlords, in fact, it is precisely the possibility of integrating income with an annuity that is the first reason behind the choice to rent a home. To the oppositewho owns a single home tends to prefer short-term tourist rentals, motivating the choice especially with the lack of adequate protections in traditional rental contracts (especially in the event of default by the tenant) and for fewer constraints inherent in this business
Regarding the use of home ownership, in addition to that of home or holiday, 51% of property owners declare that they have homes currently rented, 10% use the home for short-term tourist rentals, above all due to the difficulties of eviction on long-term rentals (for 85% of those who use short-term rentals) or to have fewer constraints (69% of cases). There remains 30% of owners who have not yet rented out their properties but intend to do so shortly and 10% of owners who have no intention of renting anything out due to negative experiences had in the past (38% of those who do not intend to rent the house) or for possible future family needs (22% of cases). Among the reasons explaining the distrust of some landlords is first of all the difficulty in finding reliable tenants (28% of landlords), or the fact that the current legislation provides greater protection for tenants (26% of cases).
The study also shows that landlords show strong interest with respect to the economic, employment and family situation of the tenants, examining details such as pay slips, the type of work and the actual composition of the family unit. In terms of guarantees, a security deposit is required in 80% of cases, especially for workers, followed by a guarantee from a parent or relative (in approximately 25% of cases, which reaches 48% for students).
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