Rented rooms, demand grows by 200% in the South

Immobiliare. it also confirms a trend that has been running, inexorably, for years. There is no stopping the race for room prices in Italy, with widespread price rises in almost all the main university cities and an overall national figure that, compared to a year ago, registers +7% for single rooms. In short, the demand from out-of-town students - but also workers - looking for accommodation for the new academic year, which is just around the corner, continues to grow.

There are some areas where interest has grown exponentially, even in triple figures, in the space of a year. The most substantial increases are to be found in two southern capitals, namely Bari and Naples, where demand has risen by 207% and 185% respectively. Two Lombardy towns such as Pavia and Brescia also performed well, rising, in that order, by 180 and 160 per cent. Growths in excess of 100 per cent of demand are also evident in Foggia (+124 per cent) and Ferrara (+116 per cent).

"The boom in searches that the cheaper locations in the south and those close to a major centre like Milan are experiencing shows how demand is shifting towards centres that are more approachable in terms of cost sustainability," says Antonio Intini, chief business development officer of Immobiliare.It -. Many students, no longer able to sustain the expenditure required in the most expensive cities, are opting for universities that are still of high quality but closer to their cities of origin or alternatives to the more traditional choices of the past, such as Bologna, Milan and Rome".

Milan, in addition to being the most expensive city in Italy in which to buy and rent a house, is also the most expensive centre when it comes to renting a room: a single room costs, in fact, 637 euros per month, up 4% compared to a year ago. However, it is precisely the high prices that discourage demand, with demand in Milan dropping by 1% in 12 months, making it one of the very few areas in Italy, along with only Padua, Novara and Ancona, to show a decrease in interest.
The opposite is true in Rome, where demand is growing strongly (+62%), despite rents for a single room rising by 9% in a year, just over the 500 euro per month threshold to 503.

Going into detail on the individual neighbourhoods of the two cities, in Milan the most expensive is Garibaldi-Moscova-Porta Nuova, where the demand for a single room is 747 euro per month. In second and third place respectively are Porta Romana-Cadore-Montenero (722 euro) and Centrale-Repubblica (720 euro). In Rome, on the other hand, the Parioli-Flaminio area is unbeatable with 647 euro per month, followed by Testaccio-Trastevere (614 euro) and Salario-Trieste (603 euro). These are also the only three neighbourhoods in the capital to exceed the 600 euro per month threshold.