What house can you buy in Italy for 150 thousand euros?

28.12.2022

Read Time: 3'

How many square meters can you buy with 150,000 euros? If in Catania you can buy 150m2 (one thousand euros per m2) in Milan, with the same amount, you can buy just 44, which drops to 15.4 in the historic center. What about the other cities in Italy?

From 2016 to 2022, at national level the square meters that can be purchased in Italy with 150 thousand euros rose from 173.4 to 186.7

However, the picture that emerges from the Reopla report changes a lot from city to city: starting from 44 m2 in Milan to 150 m2 in Catania

Over the past six years nationwide, the average price of real estate in Italy has dropped, resulting in a significant increase in the square meters you can buy with 150 thousand euros.

The question now arises: what can you buy in Italy today with 150 thousand euros? Providing the answer was Reopla, a real estate company part of the Sprengnetter Group, which within a special study, analyzed how many square meters you can buy in the different Italian provinces and the 16 most populous cities of our country, comparing the change that occurred between 2016 and the first half of 2022

What can I buy with 150,000 euros nationwide?

Nationwide, in the first half of 2022, the square meters that can be bought with 150 thousand euros rose to 186.7, an increase of 7.6 percent compared to the first six months of 2016, when 173.4 could be detected with the same amount. "The national picture that emerges from the report is an average of very different situations: the centralization of economic interests had meant that, especially before the covid-19 pandemic, some large cities were growing at a fast pace in terms of attractiveness to companies and students, at the expense of the provinces, where the housing stock is antiquated, and there has long been a gradual depopulation and market slowdown," commented Patrick Albertengo, co-founder and managing director of Reopla.

Who is not very optimistic about the real estate market's performance in 2023? "In the future, we expect the market to continue to slow down, mainly due to the rising cost of mortgages and a gradual descent of prices, which will show up a few months later than the slowdown in the number of purchases and sales," Albertengo continued.

What can I buy with 150,000 euros in major Italian cities?

Of course, the situation changes from region to region and especially from city to city. This article will show the list - in descending order - of the main cities where you can buy more m2 with 150 thousand euros (obviously the list should be read in reverse if you want to start from the most expensive cities, where you can therefore buy less m2)

In 1st place, among the top 16 cities in Italy by population, is Catania, which - with a growth in the number of m2 that can be bought of 13.4% from 2016 to 2022 - is the one in which the most m2 can be bought: 150m2 with 150 thousand euros (i.e., 1000 euros per m2) with peaks of 352 m2 in rural areas, which fall below 85 m2 in the most "expensive" areas, such as Leopardi-Asiago-Messina.
In 2nd place is Messina, with 142.8 sqm (+17.7% m2 purchasable from 2016 to today), which becomes 214 in the Altolia area and stay within 95.2 even in Piazza del Popolo-Duomo.
In 3rd place, remaining in Sicily is Palermo, where 136.1 m2 are bought (+8.7%).

They follow, in descending order:

4th place: Genoa, where 105.6 m2 are bought. From 2016 to 2022, the number of sq m that can be bought with the same amount has grown by 21.5 percent, which is the highest percentage change in Italy, indicating a strong loss of property value in the Ligurian capital.
5th place: Padua, where 99.2 sq m (4.5 percent) is bought.
6th place: Bari, 98.6 sq m (+2.7%).
7th place: Verona, 91.9 sq m (with a negative change of 0.2% of sq m from 2016 to date).
8th place: Naples, where 89.9 sq m are bought (+5.5%), becomes 144.6 in Secondigliano (suburbs) and drops to 32.7 in Posillipo.
9th place: Prato, 88 sq m (+14.5).
10th place: Trieste, 83.2 sq m (-1%).
11th place: Turin, 78.3 sq m (+1.8%).
12th place: Venice, 71.1 sq m (+9%).
13th place: Rome, 62.5 sq m (+13.1%). But beware: here, the gap is significant between neighborhoods: if in Tragliatella you can buy 137.4 sq m, in the Tridente-Centro Storico area, it drops to only 18.4 sq m.
14th place: Florence, which ranks as the third city, after Milan and Bologna, in which the square footage that can be purchased with 150,000 euros is smaller: in fact, an average of 55.4 square meters can be bought (+4.5%).
15th place: Bologna (the second most expensive city in Italy), where only 54.6 m2 can be bought (-1%).
16th place: Milan, the city in Italy where you can buy less sq m with 150 thousand euros, just 44 sq m, rising to 79.7 in the Quarto Oggiaro-Sacco neighborhoods but falling to 15.4 in the historic center (Duomo, San Babila, Cairoli). It should be noted that from 2016 to 2022, Milan saw the number of sq m purchasable with 150,000 euros decrease by 13.8 percent: this is the lowest change among the top 16 cities by population, indicating a growth in real estate values. Porta Nuova is the neighborhood with the highest increase in purchasable square meters (+18.9%), while Piola-Ardenne-Corsica is on the opposite side with a -27.3% change.

Stefania Pescarmona

Director of We-Wealth.com and editor-in-chief of the magazine. A professional journalist, she holds a law degree from the University of Turin. She has worked at MF, Bloomberg Investments, and Finanza&Mercati. She has contributed to Affari&Finanza (Repubblica) and Advisor.