COVID-19 City Perspective: The Impacts on the Real Estate Dynamics

The coronavirus, which emerged in December 2019 in China, caused a global pandemic and serious consequences for human health. It has produced—and is still producing three years later—negative impacts not only on the health sector but also on other sectors, including real estate. For cities, the COVID-19 pandemic represents a moment of transformation in terms of health, the economy and social behaviour, some of which are capable of inducing structural and sometimes permanent changes. Due to the health emergency, many people have started to spend much more time in often inadequate housing. There has been a change in the demand and, consequently, in the supply of housing due to the emergence of new needs. Through filling the gap between the COVID-19 city perspective and the people’s needs in relation to domestic spaces, this paper analyses changes in cities and in the trend of the housing market through a case study of the metropolitan area of Naples, Italy, following the national crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, a survey was conducted through a questionnaire submitted to real estate agencies operating in this area to understand how the real estate market has evolved in recent years. The analysis revealed changes in the demand for residential properties in the metropolitan area of Naples due to new requirements emerging from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.