The average rental cost in Italy rose by 1.4% in August to 13.7 €/m2, according to the monthly report on rents compiled by the research department of idealista, Italy's leading real estate portal. Even more significant is the year-on-year change, which rises to 11.9%.
Regions
The regional trend shows increases in 14 of the 20 Italian macro-areas, with the largest rebounds in the period recorded in Valle d'Aosta (10.6%), Trentino-Alto Adige (4.3%) and Apulia (3.5%). Increases above the national average are also found in Sicily (3%), Liguria (2.9%), Calabria (2.8%), Lombardy (2.5%) Campania (2.3%) and Piedmont (1.5%). The remaining increases in August ranged from 1.4 % in Lazio to 0.4 % in Sardinia.
On the other hand, the biggest drop was in Molise (-4.6%), ahead of Marche (-2.7%), Veneto (-2.1%) and Abruzzo (-1.8%). Prices also fell in Emilia-Romagna (-0.9%) and Tuscany (-0.2%). Valle d'Aosta (22.3 €/m2) is the most expensive region ahead of Tuscany (18 €/m2) and Lombardy (17.9 €/m2). Other regions with values above the national average are: Emilia-Romagna (15.6 €/m2), Trentino-Alto Adige (15.1 €/m2) and Lazio (14.2 €/m2). By contrast, Umbria (6.9 €/m2), preceded by Molise (7 €/m2) and Basilicata (7.2 €/m2) are the cheapest areas on the Peninsula.
Provinces
The provincial trend in rents sees a prevalence of areas with rising prices - there are 57 out of 106 provinces monitored - driven by double-digit rebounds in Vibo Valentia (16.7%), Brindisi (15.2%), Fermo (12.6%), Aosta (10.6%) and Trapani (10.2%). Increases above the national average of 1.4% were recorded in 33 provinces, with values ranging from 9.9% in Bolzano to 1.5% in Avellino and Biella. At the other end of the scale, Pesaro-Urbino (-11.6 per cent), Isernia (-10.6) and Pescara (-7.3 per cent) were the areas that suffered the largest price drops in August.
The highest rents demanded by owners are found in Lucca (31.7 €/m²), Belluno (27.7 €/m²), Rimini (26.4 €/m²) and Grosseto (25.4 €/m²). Milan is seventh with 21.2 €/m2, while Rome is seventeenth with 14.7 € per month. Whereas, the cheapest provinces for rent are Enna (4.8 €/m²), ahead of Caltanissetta (5.3%) and Avellino (5.7 €/m²).
Towns
There was also a positive trend for city markets, which saw 48 areas up in August compared to the previous month and 35 centres down, while seven capitals (Bologna, Trento, Ferrara, Varese, Macerata, Novara and Brindisi) showed stable demand compared to July.
The largest increases in August were concentrated in the cities of Udine (11.8%), Carrara (7.9%), Sassari (7.7%) and Lecce (7.5%). Increases above the national average in 26 other regional capitals, ranging from 6.3% in Frosinone to 1.6% in Naples.
Demand price trends were on the rise in almost all major city markets, in fact, with the exception of Bologna, stable in August were Rome (2.3%), Catania (1.9%), Milan (1.8%), Naples (1.6%), Bari (0.9%) and Turin (0.8%).
Among declining city markets, the most pronounced declines were Pesaro (-20.1%), Chieti (-9.5%) and Pescara (-9.2%).
Milan (22.4 €/m²) is steadily the most expensive city for tenants, followed by Massa (19.7 €/m²) and Florence (18.5 €/m²), Rome, with an average of 14.9 €/m² per month, is sixth, Naples (13 €/m²) is ninth in the price ranking. By contrast, the cheapest cities to rent are Vibo Valentia (4.6 €/m²), Caltanissetta (4.9 €/m²) and Reggio Calabria (5 €/m²).
The idealist property price index
For the real estate price index of idealista, the offer prices based on built square metres (per unit) published by the platform's advertisers are analysed. Atypical listings and listings with out-of-market prices are removed from the statistics. We include the type of detached houses (villas) and discard properties of any type that have not had user interaction for a long time. The final data is generated using the median of all valid listings in each market.
The full report can be found at the following link: https://www.idealista.it/en/press-room/property-price-reports/rent/.