Tourist leases, multi-level manoeuvre between cities, regions and the EU Commission

Administrative constraints, such as authorisations and permits. And urban planning restrictions, with the possibility of reducing the impact of these leases in certain areas. Interventions implemented at local level to counter the indiscriminate spread of short-term rentals have so far moved on these two levels, which have often overlapped and mixed. And they have involved different levels of administration: on the one hand the Regions, which have already passed two laws on the subject, but also municipalities, such as Florence, Bologna or Rome, which are already preparing regulations in the coming weeks.

The backbone of this phenomenon is, without a doubt, the Tuscany Region, which intervened with law 61/2024. A regulation disputed by the government that, not by chance, was the subject of an appeal that had already resulted in a ruling by the Constitutional Court at the end of last year. In that ruling (no. 186/2025), the Constitutional Court admitted the legitimacy of the tourist-receptive use for buildings used "in a stable manner and organised as non-hotel receptive structures". The activation of a specific intended use is, in fact, one of the levers most frequently used to regulate tourist leases.

Downstream of the regional law there was the intervention of the Commune of Florence, which in May 2025 approved a tightening regulation. Introducing, among other measures, an authorisation regime for new leases and prohibiting the activation of new activities within the Unesco area. At the same time, minimum habitability characteristics that rented buildings must have were established.

Along the same lines as Tuscany has moved Emilia-Romagna, which passed law no. 10 at the end of 2025 to regulate the phenomenon. That text introduces the urban destination of use for short-term rental. In other words, units that are rented out under this formula will have to change residential destination, with a potential impact on marketability and a high barrier to entry in administrative terms. On the basis of these new uses, municipalities can regulate the phenomenon, limiting it in certain areas. In February, this law was also challenged by the executive.

But even in this part of Italia, the squeeze is on two levels. The Municipality of Bologna, in fact, had already moved before its Region to introduce a specific urban destination for properties to be dedicated to these leases. It has been operational since 2025 and is the first step in a manoeuvre designed to identify areas (especially in the historic centre) in which the phenomenon will have to be limited because it has reached excessive numbers compared to the total number of available properties.