A 12% contraction in the prices of homes for sale or lease. These are the statistics from the Florentine real-estate market in 2013, according to the Federazione Italiana degli immobiliari professionisti [Italian Federation of Real-Estate Agents] (FIAIP). This trend traces the tendencies registered at the national level: as pertains to residential purchases, however, the flection registered in the [Tuscan] capital (-11.7%) is less than the national average for major cities and, among the large [urban] centers, it is second only to Palermo (which saw the value of transactions increase by approximately 10%); as for residential leases, Florence registered a 12.5% drop, compared to an average of 6.5% for urban centers.

Overall, at the national level, last year was characterized by a clear contraction in both the number of sales (-12.8%) and home prices (-12.5%) and the first few months of 2014 seem, according to real estate agents, to confirm what is essentially a stall of the market, as it waits for signs of stabilization from the economic context. If these [signs] were to be confirmed, the FIAIP states, a slow recovery is foreseeable for the second half of 2014. Meanwhile, the difference between asking and selling prices has decreased, to approximately 10-15%: an important change, because the high price expectations on behalf of the sellers are the basis for the degree of rigidity for the Italian real-estate market in recent crisis years.

As for the sale of residential properties, the 2013 survey indicates that the average time to closing decreased since last year, and is now of approximately 6-9 months, and that the most sought out properties are the three bedrooms in the central or almost central areas of larger cities. Transactions between private citizens accounts for 90% of sales.
The prices of non-residential properties decrease as well: the statistics indicate a drop of 17.5% for stores, of 17.4% for offices, and of approximately 19% for warehouses. 


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