By Joshua McElwee and Francesca Piscioneri
ROME (Reuters) – Apartment hunters across the Eternal City are worried their searches might also be eternal, with the long-term rental market in Rome drying up as landlords seek to cash in on short-term rentals for pilgrims during the 2025 Roman Catholic Holy Year.
With some 32 million tourists expected to descend on the Italian capital for the Jubilee, industry groups estimate the number of conversions from apartments to short-term units has doubled over the past year.
And monthly rental rates, for what’s left on the long-term market, have risen by around a third in the same period.
“I don’t remember a market this tight,” said David De Arce, a rental agent in Rome since the mid-1990s. “The acuteness of the lack of availability of places, regardless of the price, is the amazing thing.”
The cost of a small studio apartment in many of Rome’s central neighbourhoods has risen to at least 900 euros ($946), according to rental consulting group Solo Affitti. A one-bedroom is at least 1,200 euros ($1,261); a two-bedroom at least 1,400 ($1,471).
With the average local salary under 2,000 euros ($2,105) a month after taxes, according to a Reuters calculation from government data, the increase is forcing many Romans to move further out from the city centre.
Giorgio Andriani was left scrambling when his landlord ended the contract on his apartment of 12 years in Rome’s bohemian San Lorenzo neighbourhood in July. Because of the explosion of short-term rentals, he said: “I found a rental market that is basically non-existent.”
“I was faced with a choice: either go completely outside my neighbourhood … or leave Rome altogether,” said Andriani.
Rome is the global centre of the Catholic Holy Year, which opens on Dec. 24, Christmas Eve, and runs through Jan. 6, 2026. Catholic pilgrims who come during the Jubilee can obtain special indulgences, or remission of their sins, if they fulfil certain conditions.
Jubilees like this normally occur once every 25 years. Rome has pooled billions of euros of state and European funds to overhaul tourist sites, parks and streets.
SWITCHING TO SHORT-TERM
Donatella Petrini is among Roman landlords hoping to benefit from the Jubilee. In June, she took her one-bedroom apartment in San Lorenzo off the long-term rental market and listed it on the vacation rental service AirBnB.
Petrini said she doubled her income renting the flat with the service, so she probably will not return to long-term renting after the Holy Year.
“It has been excellent, I’ve never missed a payment,” she said. “If it keeps going as well as it is now, why not?”
AirBnB said it was unable to provide data about growth in the number of listings on the service for Rome in 2024 as compared to previous years. Solo Affitti estimated at least 20,000 AirBnB units were added this year, but said its data was imprecise due to landlords who do not follow regulations for registering their units.
Newspaper Corriere della Sera estimated in October that there are now some 40,000 AirBnB units in Rome, a city of about 2.75 million people.
Rome’s rental issue is particularly related to the Catholic Jubilee, but there have been protests this year in several European cities over the holiday apartment market, prompting action from some authorities.
Barcelona announced in June it planned to phase out short-term rentals, while lawmakers in Portugal are currently debating a measure to restrict tourist rentals in residential buildings.
In Rome, a police task force said in October it had reviewed some 3,000 short-term units listed for rent in the city and issued fines to about 1,100 that were operating outside regulations.
Italy’s tourism ministry began requiring all short-term rentals in the country to register for a new national database of rental units in September. AirBnB told Reuters it would not accept listings without such registration beginning in 2025, when the new rules enter into force.
“We recognise challenges faced by historical districts in cities such as Rome,” the company said in a statement. “We look forward to working with local leaders to support sustainable hosting.”
Ilaria Dotti moved out of her apartment of several years in September and had trouble finding another one. She eventually found a place through a friend, but wound up paying about 25% more per month.
“The prices in the past were much lower,” said Dotti, who works in the local film industry. “And you can’t find anything because anyone who has something available will rent only for the short term.”
Andriani, an artistic director, also found a home. But he said he worries about a “cultural impoverishment” of his neighbourhood as more landlords shift to short-term rentals.
“If I leave, in my place will come tourists who change every three days,” he said. “There will not be a continuation of the history and culture of the area.”
($1 = 0.9514 euros)
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee and Francesca Piscioneri; Editing by Frances Kerry)
