Property market, Cosenza urban area at the bottom of the league table
Report. Purchases and sales are languishing and for rents the price increase is between 20 % and 40 % with an average of EUR 700 in the centre areas
3' min read
3' min read
It is more attractive than Reggio Calabria, less so than Catanzaro: according to the Market Appeal Index compiled by Immobiliare .it, Cosenza remains at the bottom of the real estate market attractiveness ranking (64th place) in terms of volumes of offers, searches and contacts for listings.
While the building industry is keeping alive and new constructions are proliferating, buying and selling are languishing and rents are staggering, with peaks in rents and a reduction in the rental period: the price increase ranges between 20% and 40%, bringing monthly rents to an average of €700 (per 100 square metres) in the city centre areas. "A situation that risks leaving out of the market single-income families and young couples who do not have adequate requirements," explains Stefania Vuono, real estate agent and Cosenza provincial delegate of Anama, Confesercenti's association of sector operators.
The institutional response to the need for housing and the widespread housing hardship that characterises the old city centre in particular is the forthcoming securing of the many buildings at risk of collapse in the old city, with expropriations planned. Anama, on the other hand, is studying a proposal to involve the Bruzia city's belt municipalities and thus increase the availability of properties, where rents and sales are currently 30 per cent lower.
Many mayors are familiar with the problem: the first citizen of Domenico Gianfranco Segreti Bruno, for example, is moving to take over some old buildings that no longer have owners: 'But we urgently need ad hoc tenders,' he explains. 'Here we don't know what to do with funding for cycle paths, we need to upgrade our building stock. The municipality of Casali del Manco, practically an offshoot of Cosenza, constituted by the union of five municipalities, is incentivising new residents and businesses: 'We have deliberated the exemption from the Tari (local tax) for those who move to or invest in our area,' says the mayor Francesca Pisani, 'and we are proceeding with the purchase of some properties to be allocated to families or young couples. We also have a strategic position for those who work in Cosenza'.
An innovative vision of urban development and social regeneration, which shifts the focus from the single city (the Greater Cosenza, an attempted merger with Rende and Castrolibero that is fuelling heated controversy) to the polycentric city, according to the model of urban planner Carlos Moreno, thus restoring the link that the Cosenza municipality, and in particular its historic centre, has always had with the peri-urban area. Another way to stem the depopulation of inland areas. "This scenario of the real estate market really obliges us to look for a solution," remarks Stefania Vuono, "considering that in 2023, out of 680 new contracts with free rent, 4+4, and 480 with agreed rent, 3+2, the percentage of incidence on household income was more than 20 per cent.
