From the squares of Madrid to those of Lisbon, passing through the protests in Italian and French cities. There is a ghost haunting the European public debate: the right to housing. In Spain, the Sánchez government clashed with Parliament over measures to combat real estate speculation and protect tenants. In Germany, while the ultra-right AfD is advancing, Die Linke has established itself in Berlin, the party to the left of the SPD, led by candidate Elif Eralp, which proposes to expropriate the housing of large real estate companies. And in Italy?
According to Nomisma, around 1.5 million families in Italy find themselves in serious housing hardship. An emergency that risks compromising the attractiveness of entire metropolitan areas, where living costs well exceed 30% of income. The government’s “housing plan”, which became law last July, fits into this context. However, not all Italian capitals are prohibitive, especially if you look beyond the large tourist and economic centers, as we will see.
Thus tourism has increased the price of houses
Let’s start with the provinces. It is the latter, perhaps more than cities and large capitals, that give us an idea of how much housing costs have increased in recent years, also due to the effect of tourist flows and the conversion of long-term rentals into short-term rentals, through platforms such as Booking or Airbnb. Below you will find the map of the average rental price in the various Italian provinces, with the variation compared to the previous year, drawn up on the basis of data from the Immobiliare.it portal.
This is the case, for example, of the Aosta Valley. With around 23.21 euros per square meter on average for rent, Aosta is the most expensive province in Italy, ahead of Milan (21.28) and Florence (20.21). To be clear, to rent a sixty square meter house today we should budget around 1,400 euros per month. Yet the growth in prices, in just seven years, has been dizzying: since 2019, rents have increased by 112%. This is not the only case: a similar trend is also observed in the province of Sondrio, which includes the splendid Valtellina (+76%), and in that of Lucca, which includes the beaches of Versilia and the beauties of Garfagnana (+62.8%).
But a consistent boom is also being observed in the South. In particular, it is the province of Catanzaro, which includes seaside resorts such as Soverato and the beaches of the Costa degli Aranci, which has recorded the most significant increase in rental prices: +131% in just seven years.
Buying a house in Italian villages before prices explode: where they still cost less than 40 thousand euros – by Daniele Tempera
A dynamic that also affects territories apparently outside the great circuits of mass tourism. This is the case of the province of Isernia: here, despite remaining at lower levels than the rest of Italy, rents have increased by 84% since 2019. The reason? One explanation is the change in tourist flows and the spread of accommodation intended for short-term rentals, which can reduce the supply for long-term rentals. A circumstance which can then be reflected, as we will see, also on the fees charged to residents in cities.
Here’s Where Rental Prices Exploded (Or Stable)
That Milan is the most expensive city in Italy to rent a house is certainly nothing new. In the Milanese capital today, for a 60 square meter house, you need to budget over 1,300 euros per month: the price per square meter is 22.32 euros. It is not the only large Italian city affected by this process: in Florence rents stand at 21.75 euros per square meter, in Rome at 19.13, in Bologna and Venice at 16.5 and 15.5 euros respectively. Even a large southern city like Naples today sees rents that exceed 15 euros per square meter, with an increase of 38% compared to 2018.
Also worth highlighting is the case of the Sardinian cities of Olbia and Tempio Pausania which, in the space of just eight years, saw the price of rents increase by over 70%. Strong increases in prices are also observed in other provincial centres, such as Ascoli Piceno (+91%), Urbino (+93%), Catanzaro (+81%) and Belluno (+78%): different realities, where the presence of universities and tourism have literally made demand explode.
Increases that weigh, as we will see, on the pockets of residents. Yet exceptions exist. Among the cities where the price of rents has remained substantially unchanged we find two capitals in the centre, Grosseto and Macerata. In the first case, renting a 60 square meter house costs, on average, around 586 euros per month (9.76 euros per square meter), in the second 432 euros (7.2 euros). Even in two southern cities such as Enna and Ragusa there are limited variations, of +3.4% and +5.8% respectively, with rents which, for our home, slightly exceed 300 euros per month.
Among the cities where rents cost the least, there are, as can be seen above, many centers in the South. In Caltanissetta the rents still stand at 4.5 euros per square meter: it is the only municipality among those analyzed where the price of rentals has dropped since 2018. But low values can also be found in Abruzzo cities such as Teramo, where rents are 6.2 euros per square meter, and Chieti (6.5 euros). In the North, Piedmontese cities such as Biella should be highlighted, where a sixty-square-metre house can be rented for around 430 euros per month, with a price of 7.1 euros per square metre, and Alessandria, where just under 450 are needed.
Income and cost of rent: where it is still possible to live
To make a concrete comparison, however, it is not enough to analyze the price of rent. We then cross-referenced the rents with data from the Ministry of Economy on personal incomes for 2024, to identify the cities in which the house weighs less on taxpayers’ pockets. A clarification: we are comparing data referring to different periods, i.e. the rents of 2026 and the incomes of the 2024 tax year (the latest available). However, the comparison between the annual expenditure for a 60 square meter home and the average income declared per taxpayer offers an indication of the differences between the territories and areas of Italy where high rents are felt less.
Among the cities where rent weighs less in relation to income, we find many centers in the South, but not only. The ratio also remains favorable in some central cities, such as Macerata, where the incidence is 19.8%, and Terni (20.3%). Various Piedmontese capitals also find space, such as the aforementioned Biella (18.7%), Alessandria (20.6%), Asti (21.1%) and Cuneo (21.8%). And in the top twenty positions there are also two Lombard cities, Sondrio (21.5%) and Cremona (21.6%): different territories, united by a lower ratio between rents and incomes than that of the large centres.
German couple buys a house by the sea in Sicily: “It cost 80 thousand euros, but in the end we spent 300 thousand. Now we are happy” – by Antonio Piccirilli
The impact is calculated on the declared gross income: on the net, the weight of the rent would be greater. It therefore does not measure the portion actually spent by families, but allows us to compare the cost of rent with the average level of income in the various capitals. It is proof of how difficult it can be to find a home today: a right which, as we will see, is now increasingly at risk in larger and tourist cities.
The “impossible” cities: so the rent eats up the salary
That tourism and the extensive (and often industrial) exploitation of short-term rental platforms are altering the dynamics of our territories can be understood by looking at the case of Sardinia. At the top of our ranking for the worst ratio between income and rental costs we find four Sardinian cities: Olbia, Tempio Pausania, Tortolì and Lanusei.
Here looking for a long-term home is now a challenge. The rents requested are very high compared to local incomes: for a house of sixty square meters, the annual expenditure exceeds 50% of the average income declared by taxpayers in all four cases. A gap that makes clear how difficult it can be to sustain the cost of a rental in the age of overtourism. But the problem does not only concern these territories.
Broadening our gaze to the larger cities, we observe that in Florence the incidence reaches 50%, in Naples 45%, in Rome 43% and in Venice 40%. Milan, which has the most expensive rents, is close to 40%, while equally unfavorable ratios are observed in Massa (43.6%) and Rimini (39.7%), but also in cities such as Prato and Bologna (36.8%).
We are talking about percentages always referring to the same house (which we assumed is 60 square meters) and to the average gross income per taxpayer, which allow us to compare different realities. It must be said that the average of ads published on a portal like Immobiliare.it does not take into account rental contracts already signed, but new offers. However, it gives us an exact idea of what the real estate market looks like for those who find themselves wanting to rent a house today.
Airbnb’s blunder: this is how multinationals are taking your homes – by Daniele Tempera
In many of these cities, rents have risen sharply in the space of a few years, with increases often exceeding 30%. Salaries, however, followed a different pace: according to Istat, between 2019 and 2025 average gross wages per employee grew by approximately 16% in nominal terms (i.e. without considering inflation).
The only strategy left to many residents is thus that of progressively moving away from the historic centers and the most popular cities, as we have explained in this in-depth analysis. A slow exodus that is changing, not too slowly, the geography and face of our cities.
Dossier is the exclusive subscription investigative section of The Vermilion. If you want to support our journalistic work and subscribe, Click here.