In Piedmont there are hundreds of thousands of unoccupied houses. In absolute values, the record belongs, as expected, to the Turin area with 313,782 vacant homes. But in proportion to the number of total houses, the Cuneo area leads the ranking with 172,703 empty apartments out of 427,602. These numbers refer to 2021 and derive from the permanent census of Istat, which annually, biennially or triennially provides information on population and housing, businesses, non-profit institutions and public institutions.
Looking at the national situation, approximately four million more homes were registered in 2021 compared to 2011, marking a growth of 13%. As a result, occupied homes have increased (+5%), but so have unoccupied ones (+8%), i.e. houses that are empty or not habitually lived in by those who own them. The increase in buildings, as Istat underlines, is due to “especially to the component of unoccupied homes“. This increase is explained both by the growth in the number of buildings and by the adoption of a change in counting methodology compared to 2011. Now, in fact, the census “is based exclusively on administrative data appropriately corrected and integrated into the Statistical Register of places” and not “on the information collected on families“.
At a regional level, in absolute values, after Turin and Cuneo there are the provinces of Novara and Vercelli. Also interesting is the fact that Bardonecchia (in the upper Val di Susa) has more empty houses than the province of Novara, with 1,673 occupied versus 9,031 empty. Looking instead at the situation in Granda, in Cuneo there are 6,458 empty apartments (out of 32,279 total). But the regional record is not held by the capital. In Frabosa Sottana, in fact, there are 7,478 vacant houses.
High numbers also in other places such as Limone Piemonte with 7,132. Then there are countries where the ratio between occupied and unoccupied apartments is notable. For example, in Roburent, next to 272 occupied houses there are 3,183 empty ones and in Sampeyre only 510 people live in them against the 3,988 empty ones. A sign that some villages in our province are confirmed as holiday destinations, with houses to be occupied every now and then, perhaps to escape for a weekend from the frenzy of everyday life.
