Transient rent, demand up 200% since 2019

"Short-term renting remains an important component of leasing, especially in cities of art or areas with a strong tourist vocation," explains Antonio Intini, chief business development officer of Immobiliare.it, "but we believe that the phenomenon has already reached its peak and is now experiencing a stabilisation phase, as well as some rethinking, even by landlords, after the post-pandemic boom.

There are management costs if the owner entrusts the asset to a specialist in management. If you manage it yourself, you have to clean it, give the keys every few days, do direct maintenance. All charges that when money was cheap were incurred. Now that the mortgage has a cost, every subsequent burden is weighed. What shows a drop in supply in the cities under review (except Milan) are the figures themselves, while demand remains positive.

"The transitory contract, on the other hand," Intini said, "especially in the cities (not just Milan and Rome) is growing because it balances the needs of stable and regular rents for some owners, who can return to possession of the flat in 18 months, with those of tenants who do not want to or cannot tie themselves down for a long time. It concerns students, both Italian and foreign, of master's degrees and specialisation schools, young workers, trainees, managers, relocators and, increasingly, young couples or families with children, people waiting for mortgages to fall in order to buy a home'.

"Transient rentals," added Vincenzo De Tommaso, head of Idealista's research office, "do not only concern large cities and are gaining more and more importance at the expense of classic rentals. In the second quarter of 2024, this typology accounted for 23 per cent of the market, with an increase in the annual offer of 29 per cent. In contrast, the supply of permanent rentals grew by only 6 per cent over the same period. The capital city with the highest percentage of transient rentals out of the total supply is Venice (45 per cent). Also in Genoa, Pisa, Salerno and Verbania, the supply of transient rentals reaches 30 per cent. This is followed by Milan (28 per cent), Naples, Lucca, Trento and Rome (all 27 per cent)".

Also confirming the structural pressure on renting is the 2nd Observatory on the Real Estate Market 2024 carried out by Nomisma, according to which in Italy the total number of dwellings rented or used free of charge as a dwelling or residence (excluding those used as a main dwelling) accounts for around 20% of the entire residential stock.

Against this backdrop, the decline in new contracts signed continued in the first quarter of 2024, due to the low supply on the market - with a trend of -1.8% - while the market for transient and student leases continued to perform well, with an increase in the number of contracts signed, which, however, did not absorb the drop recorded in ordinary contracts;

Overall, about half of all landlords claim to have homes currently rented out; almost one in three have not yet rented out their properties but plan to do so soon; one in 10 use their homes for short tourist rentals and the remaining 10% of landlords do not think about it at all.