Italy’s rental market is changing shape. A socio-demographic analysis by Tecnocasa Group’s Research Office, based on tenancy agreements signed through its network of agencies in 2025, paints a picture of a sector undergoing structural change.
More students, more foreign nationals, fewer freely negotiated rental contracts (contratti a canone libero), and an unstoppable rise in temporary contracts (contratti a carattere transitorio). The market is responding to pressure from demand that is increasingly fragmented, mobile and focused on flexibility.
- Who rents: a housing choice for 64%, but strong growth among students
- Milan and Rome: the quiet revolution in the rental market
- The major shift in contracts: temporary agreements exceed 31%, while freely negotiated contracts decline
- One- and two-bedroom flats lead the market, but studio flats are gaining ground
- Tenants: almost half are under 34, while foreign nationals reach a historic high
Who rents: a housing choice for 64%, but strong growth among students
The main reason Italians rent remains housing-related. Some 64.0% of contracts signed in 2025 involved people choosing to rent as a housing solution for personal or financial reasons.
Workers relocating for their jobs account for 26.2% of the total, a slight fall on the previous year. University students are the fastest-growing group, rising from 7.9% in 2024 to 9.8% in 2025. This notable jump reflects both higher university enrolment and, increasingly, the arrival of international students drawn to courses at Italian universities.
The differences between cities are pronounced.
- Naples (73.9%) and Palermo (71.0%) are the metropolitan areas with the highest share of rentals driven by housing needs.
- Verona leads for workers relocating for work, at 43.1%, followed by Bari (42.9%), Milan (38.0%) and Florence (37.8%).
- University students are more concentrated in Turin, where they account for 35.5% of tenants, followed by Bologna (30.5%) and Florence (29.7%).
Milan and Rome: the quiet revolution in the rental market
Italy’s two largest cities show similar trends, though their tenant profiles differ.
- In Milan, the proportion of contracts signed by students increased from 18.5% in 2024 to 22.2% in 2025, while the share of workers relocating for their jobs fell sharply from 45.3% to 38.0%.
- In Rome, 2025 brought growth in rentals for both students, rising from 12.8% to 18.5%, and relocating workers, increasing from 26.8% to 30.8%.
In both cities, the growing student segment reflects increasingly intense demand for university accommodation in markets already affected by a structural shortage of available homes.
The major shift in contracts: temporary agreements exceed 31%, while freely negotiated contracts decline
The most substantial change concerns the type of tenancy agreement being signed. Over six years, the market has changed dramatically.
- Freely negotiated rental contracts (contratti a canone libero), where landlords and tenants agree the rent without the locally set limits used for agreed-rent agreements, fell from 51.9% in 2019 to 40.4% in 2025.
- Temporary agreements (contratti a carattere transitorio) more than doubled in relative terms, climbing from 18.4% in 2019 to 31.2% in 2025.
It is a clear sign of a market responding to tenants’ growing need for flexibility. People are increasingly mobile for work, study or personal reasons, while landlords tend to prefer shorter agreements that provide greater contractual protection.
- Agreed-rent contracts (canone concordato), where rent is set within terms agreed locally between landlord and tenant associations, remained broadly stable at 28.4%.
- The freely negotiated rental contract remains the most common type nationwide, accounting for 40.4% of agreements.
In the more dynamic markets, however, temporary contracts have already moved into first place.
In Milan, temporary agreements are now the most frequently signed type, accounting for almost 45% of contracts and rising steadily year after year. This suggests that the Lombardy capital is moving ever closer to the rental model of an international city, where high mobility and short-term agreements are increasingly the norm.
Milan has also seen growth in agreed-rent contracts, rising from around 1% in 2023 to 5% in 2024 and then 13.8% in 2025. The increase follows the 2023 update to the Accordi Territoriali – local agreements that establish the terms for this type of contract – which made the arrangement more financially attractive.
Bari recorded the highest proportion of temporary agreements in Italy, at 78.6% of contracts signed.
- At the other end of the scale, Bologna stands out for the clear dominance of freely negotiated rental contracts (90%), while Genoa is the city where agreed-rent contracts lead the way, accounting for 80% of agreements.
- Rome, Verona, Naples and Palermo also recorded high rates of agreed-rent contracts, between 40% and 60%.
- In Florence and Turin, freely negotiated rental agreements account for around 44% to 45% of the market.
One- and two-bedroom flats lead the market, but studio flats are gaining ground
The most commonly rented home in Italy remains the one-bedroom flat, accounting for 39.1% of choices, followed by two-bedroom flats at 30.5%. This long-standing preference reflects demand mainly from couples and single adults.
The newer development is the growing use of studio flats. They exceeded the 10% mark in 2024 and continued to increase in 2025. The trend is directly linked to rising rental costs, which are pushing more tenants to reduce their expectations around floor space in order to keep monthly spending under control.
Tenants: almost half are under 34, while foreign nationals reach a historic high
On the demographic side, almost half of tenants, 47.1%, are aged between 18 and 34. The proportions fall progressively in older age groups. The rental market therefore remains largely a young person’s market, driven by people who do not yet have the means or the desire to buy a home.
The most significant figure concerns nationality. Some 86.9% of tenants are Italian nationals, while 13.1% are foreign nationals. The latter share has risen from 11.1% in 2024 and is the highest percentage recorded in recent years. It reflects both greater international mobility and the growing number of foreign students and workers in Italy’s main cities, pointing towards an increasingly international rental market in the years ahead.
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