Rent in Milan, students protest for the increase in housing costs

Ilaria Lamera, the 23-year-old student from Bergamo who pitched a tent in front of the Milan Polytechnic a week ago to protest against high rents has returned home. But the mobilization is not over: the legacy of her gesture has been taken up by many students of the Milanese university accompanied by members of the student collective “La Terna Sinistorsa”. «The exponential growth of the price of a single bed in recent years puts us in a difficult condition: unlivable rooms at crazy costs. In no way is it possible for students and workers to become independent and build their own future, alone or with someone. “It is necessary to keep attention on the issue, and this is why we ask to join the protest, so that a physical space for discussion is created in every city to analyze possible solutions”, they explain. The goal is in fact to bring the issue to national attention.

Meanwhile, even in front of other Milanese universities such as La Statale, in via Festa del Perdono, dissatisfaction is growing with a difficult situation that does not seem to be improving. «I took a house in the Forlanini area (eastern district of the city, ed). I pay €300 excluding expenses for a double room, but I’m in an area where transport isn’t very efficient. The cost of the rent is acceptable but it took me a long time to find it», explains Maria, 24, from the Faculty of Law. «Clearly I did a negotiation between private individuals because the costs of the agencies were insane. It was not possible for me to support them », she adds. On the other hand, there are those who commute to avoid having to pay rent in Milan: «I spend almost two hours every morning between the train and bus from the province of Brescia, I spend 100 euros a month (with the transport bonus, now 50 euros, ed) but I don’t have the rent costs that aren’t for my pockets. I have two other brothers, I’m not an only child», says Martina, 23 years old. Eleonora, 21, in her second year of law studies, says she is “lucky”: when she moved to Milan from Calabria she looked for a single room to rent on websites, Facebook forums and through agencies: “Under €600 there was nothing. Unless I wanted to go and live outside Milan, but having to be at the University early in the morning to attend classes and not having a car, it was impossible for me », she explains. «The last resort – after having also excluded the student residences because there was no room – was the house of a friend from Cosenza who bought a house a year and a half ago and has an extra room. I live with her and I pay her rent for her.’ The situation in Milan does not improve for students of other universities: in the same conditions those of Bicocca and the Polytechnic.

Expensive rents: after Milan, the protest of the students’ tents also reaches Rome. Here are all the prices for a room city by city

sandra hedgehog

08 May 2023

“We will resume the table on rents, but a definitive solution will be difficult in the short term”. Mayor Beppe Sala had promised Ilaria Lamera a week ago.

The protest, however, is confirmed by the numbers: renting a house has become more expensive by 11%, with peaks of 12.7% in the most popular areas (such as that of the Polytechnic), compared to a year ago. The average cost per square meter is around €21.73, data from April. The average in the Lombard capital is €628 a month for a single room, €1,280 for a one-room flat, €1,850 for a two-room flat. In the same situation also Bologna with 467€ and Rome with 452. Increases also in the South: +28% in Naples, +27.4% in Bari. The only city bucking the trend is Turin where the figures seem not to be affected by the increase in costs.

But the government of Giorgia Meloni, in the Budget Law, has not refinanced the rent fund or that for innocent defaulting tenants. The first fund, introduced in 1998 by D’Alema, has to be refinanced every year in Manovra. The second, which disburses contributions to those unable to pay the rent, dates back to the government of Enrico Letta (2013). “We have financed other measures for families by helping with bills,” said Senator of the Brothers of Italy Marco Lisei. The government “had to make choices”, giving “priority to families, the weakest groups and companies grappling with energy costs”, the Deputy Minister for Infrastructure Galeazzo Bignami (FdI) said in March. The zeroing will involve tens of thousands of families while there are already 150,000 executive evictions (90% for arrears). But the university ministry announced in a note that “with the budget law it has refinanced the fund under law 338 (to build student accommodation, ed.) with an additional 400 million over three years”. Figure to which are added the Pnrr funds – 960 million – for university construction. However, none of these measures solves the problem of workers and families grappling with the rent bubble. «We need a national plan: a billion for the rent support fund, investments to recover unused houses as the mayors are asking. A law to regulate short-term rentals that drug the system », says Pierfrancesco Majorino of the Pd National Secretariat with responsibility for the house and dem group leader in the Lombardy region. These resources would help 400,000 families. «We need funds for the subsidy in the “high-voltage housing” areas. In recent years the State has gained from taxes on leases: 21% on each with the dry coupon. Almost 2 billion more than ten years ago», added the commissioner of the House of Milan, Pierfrancesco Maran who presented a proposal to 13 Italian cities and the government inspired by the Spanish model: a 3% ceiling on rental growth , waiting for a specific index. “Public administrations can do little. – adds Maran – In Milan, in the former slaughterhouse area, we will build 1,200 homes at special prices». The problem, however, is not solved only by building but also recovering disused properties (about 15,000 in Lombardy). Especially in a city like Milan which will reach its highest number of inhabitants since 1981 before the summer.