September marks the start of a new phase for thousands of people who, due to work, university or personal reasons, relocate to major Italian cities. And those moving to Italy and looking for property for rent are facing a real challenge: according to the latest analysis by idealista’s research department, each property listed for rent in Italy has as an average of 13 enquiries, making the search for a home increasingly difficult.
According to Vincenzo De Tommaso, head of idealista’s research department in Italy, "the rental market is in crisis. Finding medium- to long-term rental accommodation at affordable prices has become almost impossible, with rents having increased by 8.8% in just the past year. Short-term rentals, seen as more profitable, are monopolising the market, drastically reducing the supply for those who want to live in cities permanently."
"The situation is further exacerbated," continues De Tommaso, "by the difficulties associated with long-term rentals. In the case of non-paying tenants, it can take up to a year and a half to evict them, with landlords also having to pay taxes on rents they never received. If the government introduced laws that better protected landlords and allowed them to recover their properties quickly, many would return to preferring long-term rentals."
The impact of rental demand is particularly evident in large urban centres, many of which far exceed the national average of 13 enquiries per listing. Rome is the market with the highest number of families interested in a single flat, with an average of 29 enquiries, followed by Turin (23) and Florence (21). Even Milan, while recording a lower average than Rome, still has 10 families competing for each available flat.
Verona holds the record for the number of families interested in each listing, with 42 contenders per flat, followed by cities such as Forlì (37), Prato (33), and Trento (32). In contrast, cities like Catanzaro and Benevento show much lower interest, with only 2 and 3 families per listing, respectively. Looking at Italy's main markets, Rome has an average of 29 enquires per property, 10 in Milan, 21 in Florence and 19 in Bologna.