Short leases, takings fall and transients gain ground

After booming in recent years, both in terms of supply and yields, the short-let market is showing signs of slowing down and paving the way for a gradual rebalancing towards transient rentals. Already in 2025, the short-term rental sector had suffered a setback. Weighing on the trend were, on the one hand, increasing regulatory constraints and, on the other, the drop in international flows influenced by the complex geopolitical scenario.

The tightening introduced at national level, with the obligation of a National Identification Code (Cin) and greater fiscal and administrative controls, has been joined over time by differentiated regional and municipal regulations, often designed to contain the impact of tourism on densely populated cities. This scenario is now compounded by the new European regulation on short-term rentals, operational from 20 May 2026, which introduces stricter transparency and data sharing obligations for online platforms.

In spite of the regulatory change of pace, the number of short-rented accommodations registered with the accommodation data bank (Bdsr) of the Ministry of Tourism continues to hover around 718,000. Approximately 72 thousand listings in the 20 main cities. Although there is no mass flight, what is changing the market is the affordability of the formula and the demand for it. The numbers confirm the slowdown in profits especially for art cities. The analysis prepared by the Italianway research office for Il Sole 24 Ore compares the profitability of different types of lease in the main Italian cities for a typical 50 square metre property. According to the data, in Venice the net profit for tourist rental has dropped by 16.5% in the last year, going from an annual income of 21,672 euro to just over 18 thousand euro (a figure already net of expenses, but not of the coupon), while maintaining a high gross profitability, which now stands at 10.8% on the value of the property. In the capital of the Veneto region, the occupancy rate has fallen from 62% to 55%, with the average rate going from 216 to 205 euro per night. Florence also showed a compression: net annual takings fell by 12.6% (with gross profitability now at 6.8%). Occupancy in the Tuscan capital fell from 61% to 58%, as did the average rate: from 187 to 172 euro. Among the cities where profits have dropped the most is the capital, where revenue has fallen by 9.4 per cent, with gross profitability today at 9.5 per cent.

'There are several reasons for the slowdown,' explains Marco Celani, president of the Italian Association of Short-Term Rental Operators (Aigab) and CEO of Italianway. Rates, after peaking in 2023, are in constant decline. There is also a general reduction in demand from international and high-end tourists: fewer Americans and Asians have arrived in Venice, and it is inevitable that the market will suffer. The Venetian capital, Florence and Rome share a very similar tourism model and suffer the same dynamics'. The situation is different in Milan, which shows more contained dynamics, typical of a market that is now mature: in the city as a whole, net short-term profit remains substantially stable (-0.5% over the year), while the historic centre loses almost 2 per cent.

If the convenience of the short term slows down almost everywhere, the transitory (leases of up to 18 months) is more competitive, with average net takings among the eight cities analysed (always gross of the coupon) growing by over 3 per cent. In Rome and Bologna profits in almost a year have grown by about 5 per cent, with gross profitability now over 15 per cent and 11 per cent respectively. Revenues in Palermo and Venice grew by 3.8 per cent and 3.1 per cent in one year, while in Naples and Florence they remained almost stable compared to last year (+0.9 per cent and +0.5 per cent).