PagineGialle Casa, Italiaonline’s marketplace, a meeting point for users and professionals in the home sector, which has almost one million visitors a month* with 100,000 requests for estimates a year, has confirmed its role as a privileged observatory on seasonal trends related to housing. The site has mapped the service categories that have grown the most in the first 6 months of 2023 compared to the previous year, revealing confirmations and a few surprises.
THE FIRST HALF
In general, in the first six months of this year, the record for the increase in searches, with +41% compared to 2022, belongs to “real estate agencies”, in whose macro-category are included: “buying, selling and renting real estate”; “real estate consultancy services”; “property administration”. The latter category, in particular, registers the largest increase in searches.
Next, with +32% of requested quotes, are the items ‘renovation’ and ‘doors and windows’. Lastly, the services of ‘painting’ and ‘cleaning companies’, which both grew by over 20% compared to the previous year (and show a correlation between painting work and the need to then clean the house or office after the work).
The category experiencing the greatest decline in online quote requests? That of renewable energies
(-62%), partly due to changes in the Superbonus subsidy rates from 110% to 90%, valid until the end of December 2023.
THE SPRING MONTHS
During the spring months, requests for quotations in certain service categories grew in preparation for the summer. Once again this year, throughout the peninsula, Italians have shown the greatest attention and planning towards interventions to make their homes more comfortable, efficient and safe during the hot weather and holiday period, preferring to rely on an online portal to compare several quotes from professionals rather than word of mouth, especially for services such as burglar alarms and security systems.
The race to secure the home by requesting burglar alarms and security systems before the August exodus involves 50% of Italian regions, with the highest concentration of requests and increase in the city of Rome, followed by Bergamo.
The same percentage of regions act ahead of time with regard to requests for mosquito nets and awnings, where the highest volumes of requests in May are found in Rome and Milan, in view of the scorching heat of the current months, with increases in Lucca, Genoa and Mantua.
In 85% of the regions, on the other hand, requests increased for the preventive installation of air conditioners and pest control for indoor and outdoor spaces, so that people can enjoy the coolness in their homes and tranquillity in their gardens and terraces.
Remaining in the outdoor spaces, the categories of services related to gardening since May have seen a marked increase in requests for quotations in around 50% of Italian regions, with Rome leading the way in terms of volume and increase.
Seasonal increases in requests were also recorded in cleaning services: gold medals were awarded to Taranto, Bari Salerno and Ancona in terms of percentage increase; Rome and Naples lead the way in terms of number of requests. The race to clean sewers and cesspools, to avoid nasty surprises in the hot months, concerns 55% of Italian regions, with a growing attention since May in the marine provinces of Rimini and Genoa.
The PagineGialle Casa platform allows potential customers to compare quotes on around 200 types of services, in order to choose the best professional in their area to entrust the job to, and for companies to increase the number of customers and therefore turnover. The online quotation service is available nationwide and has 30,000 registered companies and home professionals, who are offered the opportunity to try the service without obligation with free first contacts.
“The data we analysed confirms that Italians are becoming increasingly attentive to and aware of the choice of professionals to carry out work on their homes,” says Carlo Meglio, Chief Online Directories And Local Marketplaces Officer. – The increase in online quote requests confirms that the home is an increasingly important environment to take care of in order to enjoy quality time with friends and family. The work we do on the PagineGialle Casa portal is precisely to provide an innovative and simple service that puts users in touch with professionals close to them to receive quotes in a quick and comparable manner, helping them to optimise time and value for money.”
*Source: Audiweb May 2023