Property market liquidity and real estate recovery procedures efficiency: evidences from the Italian economic cycle

Purpose – The minimization of financial losses and costs stemming from the credit recovery process is strictly connected with the time necessary to complete the procedure: in real estate credits, it depends on the liquidity and the efficiency of the enforcement procedures. The purpose of this paper is to test the relevance of the economic cycle in Italy on the determinants of the recovery process both at national and regional level. Design/methodology/approach – The first step is to identify the determinants of the real estate loans recovery process duration by the means of the review of the existing literature. The second step develops an empirical analysis to appraise the relevance of the economic cycle on the liquidity of the real estate market and efficiency of real estate enforcement proceedings. The relevance of the economic cycle is verified through, first, a correlation analysis of the selected indexes with the national and regional gross domestic product (GDP) and, second, a regression analysis of the selected indexes on the current and lagged GDP. As it concerns the liquidity of the real estate market, a turnover index is considered stratified both at sectoral and geographical level, while for the real estate enforcement procedures the paper analyzes indexes based on both the turnover of ended and filed proceedings and the pending proceedings outstanding at the year-end. Findings – The empirical results demonstrated that, in some sectors and geographic areas, the market liquidity is influenced by the national and the regional economic cycles, both expressed at current values and, moreover, the sign of the relationship is frequently negative. As it concerns the enforcement procedures efficiency, empirical evidence does not support the direct influence of the current or past economic cycle on it, leaving room for the relevance of the competent court specific features. Originality/value – The paper considers the Italian market, that is featured by a moderate level of the average loan to value and, above all, by lengthiness administrative procedures. The paper contributes to the existing literature through the integrated examination of the relationship between the recovery process determinants and the national and regional economic cycles over different geographic areas.