Rent is not just a problem for students: “We need a house plan”

If house prices are high, it is because there is too much demand and inadequate supply. “We need public housing and subsidized rents. It is a mistake to cancel the rent fund but also to return to a fair rent”, says the economist Lungarella. Some idea

They protest overly high rents but may not realize they are a cause of the problem. Let’s put aside the individual stories of the students who are sleeping in tents outside the rectorates these days and look at the numbers: the most up-to-date data say that there are 591,000 off-site students, 40,000 public housing dedicated to them. If the Pnrr projects were to be successfully completed, in 2026 there would be 100,000 student beds. With the result that still 491,000 people would continue to look for a house on the free market, fueling a growing demand in urban centers which collides with insufficient supply. “Of course, students are a part of a much larger problem,” he reasons with Il Foglio Raffaele Lungarellaeconomist expert in public and housing policies: “Demand presses against a blocked supply, partly because in order not to consume land we no longer build, partly because part of the heritage has been dedicated to other uses, for example tourism and short-term rentals”. High prices depend on this and concern everyone, off-site workers and families. It is no coincidence that rents have grown in the most sought-after university cities in the last year: almost twenty percent in Padua, slightly less in Bologna and Milan according to a recent report by Scenari Immobiliari and Camplus.