ABSTRACT
The number of dwellings completed per year in all Italy rose from 93,000 in 1951 to 313,000 in 1961 and reached a peak of 450,000 in 1964. The building industry had been in decline since the start of the war, with house construction figures falling from 98,000 dwellings in 1936 to 23,000 in 1942. The importance of Housing Reform Act lay in its relaunching of a public housing policy and its serious attempt at solving the housing problem. Like in other European countries at the end of the war, the Government had to confront the problems of reconstruction of both the housing stock and the network of infrastructure that had been destroyed or damaged. The proportion of total public investment was higher in the early post-war years, equal to 25% in 1951, and decreased in successive years, reaching its lowest point ever during the 1971-1975 period.
