Between 2022 and 2023 house rental prices increased by an average of 6.1% but above all the rental prices in the 14 metropolitan cities were the driving force with an average +10.2%. The city that recorded the most significant increase was Milan with +19.2%, followed by Trieste with +16.4% and Naples with +15.8%. In Rome, house rental prices increased by 7.9% in the two-year period. Florence is the only large city to record a decline (-1.5%).
These are the data reported by Cresme which processed the Omi-Revenue Agency half-yearly data. According to what was reported in the survey, house rents increased following the inflation of 2022, which in Italy led to an increase in the cost of living, there would therefore have been a sort of adjustment in the profitability of properties precisely to this higher cost of living.
In the second half of 2023, housing rental prices grew in Italy by 3.8% compared to the same period in 2022, while in the first half of the year the trend increase was +2.9%. Cresme reports a transition from negative rates of change between 2015 and 2019 to moderate increases alternating with slight declines between 2019 and 2021, up to the more decisive increases in 2022 and 2023.
For the 14 metropolitan cities, an average increase of 5.4% was recorded in the second half of 2023 alone (over the same period of 2022). After the significant drop in rental prices recorded in 2015 (-6.7% in the first half and -2.3% in the second half) in Italy the reduction rates attenuate significantly between 2016 and 2019 leading to limited increases between 2019 and 2020. 2021 is characterized by a slight decline and starting from the first half of 2022 the current growth phase is taking shape with the progression that sees, at a national level, +0.9% in the first half of 2022, +2.0% in the second semester 2022, +2.9% in the first semester 2023 and +3.8% in the second semester 2023. The progression in metropolitan cities is, in the same periods, equal to +2.1%, +3.7%, +4.6% and +5.4%.
At the level of the 14 metropolitan cities analyzed, a strong polarization can be seen between the cities which present significantly different speeds. Behind the three leaders, Milan, Trieste and Naples, there are five cities with sustained increases:
-Bologna (+9.1% in the two-year period and +6.4% trend in the last half-year)
-Turin (+9.1% in the two-year period and +6.4% trend in the last half-year)
-Rome (+7.9% in the two-year period and +3.6% trend in the last half-year)
-Palermo (+6.8% in the two-year period and +4.0% trend in the last half-year)
-Bari (+6.7% in the two-year period and +1.0% trend in the last half-year).
Five other cities present moderate increases between +1.3% in Catania and +3.2% in Genoa; in the last half-year, among these last five cities, Genoa (+2.8%), Cagliari (+1.7%), Messina (+1.4%) while Venice stops at +0.4% are more dynamic. and Catania falls by -0.8%. The only metropolitan city with a negative result is Florence with -1.5% but with +3.2% trend in the last semester. These data broken down into the provincial capitals highlight that only in the most dynamic locations is the rental price able to adapt synchronously (and perhaps even more than proportionally) to the general growth in prices, while the other less attractive locations will see less large increases which may not be commensurate with inflation rates.”
Rental housing is growing, in Italy it concerns 26% of families
Consistent data on growth in rents over the last ten years in the main EU countries (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) can also be read in the report by Scenari Immobiliari and Abitare Co., according to which the Rental fees grew by 41.5% on average.
During 2023, residential rents increased by an average of 5%, reaching €18.50 per square meter per month. The average rental value of a 60 square meter two-room apartment in the main European capitals reached 26.7 euros per month in the last quarter of 2023 with an average increase of 4.5% compared to the last quarter of 2022. Studio apartments under fifty square meters instead recorded an average rent of 1,174 euros per month with a growth of 7.2 percent. The monthly cost of a single student room increased by 5.3%, to end the year close to 700 euros per month.
In 2000 in our country, 23% of families lived in a rented house, while today the percentage has risen to 26 percent and is still growing. «It’s not just an economic phenomenon – he explained Mario Breglia, president of Scenari Immobiliare – which pushes towards leasing. But also a different approach to the way of life that started with young people and is affecting larger segments of the population, especially urban ones. Italian families spent over 5.8 billion euros on rent last year. It is a figure that has grown by 10% in five years. And this count excludes the short-term rental sector.”
