Mur: “It is wrong to compare the costs of student accommodation with private market rents”

“The costs per bed in student halls of residence built under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan have been calculated on the basis of data from the Italian Revenue Agency relating to student tenancy agreements and include essential services such as electricity, gas and heating. In some cases, the halls of residence also provide a canteen, the cost of which is already included in the price. Comparing these figures with private market rents is therefore not only inaccurate but also incorrect: market rents reflect only the cost of the tenancy, to which utility bills and service charges must be added.”

This is the view of the Ministry of Universities, which states that “the conclusions of journalistic investigations into the prices of university halls of residence are completely misleading”. “The Government’s commitment to creating new student accommodation places represents a concrete and structural response to strengthening the right to education, through a significant expansion of affordable housing provision, reducing barriers to university access and helping to bridge a long-standing shortfall in the availability of student accommodation”, concludes the Ministry of Education.