The Jubilee turns Rome into a vacation rental jungle

Rome celebrates the jubilee or jubilee year every 25 years. A time for redemption and plenary indulgence, for reconciliation, conversion and penance. An extraordinary moment for the Catholic Church, which will begin on December 24 with the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica and the Pope's phrase that has been repeated in the same ritual since the 15th century: “This is the Door of the Lord, through which the righteous will enter.” That door, however, can also be the hole through which all the worldly sins of a city doomed to chaos and picaresque slip through when the public concessions period opens and tourists appear. Rome is preparing to receive millions of visitors (in 2020 there were 25 million), according to City Hall estimates, most of them pilgrims, who will want to celebrate such a special moment. And it does so with dozens of uncomfortable works, with an unaffordable increase in rental prices for families, an increase in rates for overnight stays and shadows of corruption in public contracts. The City Council already assumes the electoral cost of what it will have to face.

The city must get ready for the great celebration. And the City Council, headed by the social democrat Roberto Gualtieri, has around 1,800 million euros to launch more than a hundred works, among which the expansion of the metro stands out (with a station in Piazza Venezia, planned since the years seventies), a wide pedestrian promenade between Castel Sant'Angelo and San Pietro – with its underground passage – or the restoration of the basilica's baldachin, the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which will cost around 700,000 euros. Beyond the inconvenience for residents, some associations and experts warn of the danger posed to the infiltration of corrupt organizations and mafias if these works bypass the usual controls when carried out by emergency procedure.

The Satta Romano law firm, one of the largest specialists in administrative law in the country, has been warning about this issue for months. Anna Romano, one of his partners, emphasizes that the emergency processes with which the works are being put out to tender can harm quality. “They lower the controls and the problem is that then we have a worse final product. The Jubilee works have an importance that goes beyond the event: trams, streets, installations… actions that if not done well will create problems. And going quickly also reduces the intensity of controls, and that increases the risk of mafia infiltration and corruption. In Rome it is especially serious because there are intersections between PNNR (the funds for the post-pandemic recovery plan) and the Jubilee. There is great pressure on the Administration to achieve these concessions,” she says, pointing to a historical problem in Italy with mafias. But the main difficulty, beyond the works, will be the accommodation. At least for tourists and residents looking for an apartment on those dates.

From 2,800 to 12,000 euros per month

The capital of Italy has been a vacation rental jungle for years. Most of the buildings in the center have already lost a large part of their neighbors to be transformed into tourist apartments or small automated hostels. On almost every goal you can see signs advertising these tiny establishments. The owners prefer this to long-term rentals, which entail problems and a much lower return. In 2023, some 20,000 short-term contracts were signed in Rome, double the standard (five years). Fabrizia Preli, for example, owner of a 180 square meter apartment in Cairoli Square in Rome, charged 2,800 euros in rent from her tenants until a year ago. When she ended the contract, she explains, she decided not to renew it thinking she would earn more by putting the apartment on Airbnb. “Now I rent it for 550 euros a night. That is, in a month I can earn about 12,000 euros by staying busy for about 20 nights. During the Jubilee, of course, it will be more,” she predicts.

The trend is general, as pointed out by real estate agencies. And it has become a problem for the residents of Rome, who have enormous difficulties finding housing in the center or in places located near a subway station. “It is a crisis never seen before. There is a lack of apartments, and the owners who are aware of having very unique houses do what they want and ask for what they want. The increase has been at least 10% in the last year. And they also ask for all kinds of short contracts, 18 months, guarantees… A somewhat tragic situation, to be honest,” says Daniela Manco, real estate agent at the company Engel & Völkers.

The lack of controls on properties that do not have a license has favored the proliferation of this type of business, which has become a recurring financial vehicle for families who can afford to buy a home for that purpose. According to the City Council, right now there are 12,000 illegal accommodations. In addition, Rome had another 17,950 tourist apartments in order in 2019 which, in view of the Jubilee, have increased to 22,828 in 2023. The Government has stimulated the situation with measures approved in Parliament for short-term rentals. “You have to have a special license. But there aren't many controls. Everyone who has a house wants to put it under the short-term rental regime. There has been a bloodbath in the pandemic. All those who had four or five apartments of 2,000 or 3,000 euros to rent were left without that income. And when the pandemic happened, everyone wanted to get the money back. The Jubilee has been the icing on the cake,” insists Manco.

Italy fined the tourist rental platform Airbnb 576 million euros for not having paid the corresponding taxes in recent years. And in the City Council of Rome, voices are growing that ask to use part of that money to face the housing emergency. The Tenants Union has also requested it. Mario Breglia, president of the Real Estate Scenarios Institute, confirms that the market has been radically transformed in the last two years due to the effect of temporary rentals. “Rome is very late in the controls. Before, short-term rentals were only in the historic center. Then they grew and now they affect the entire city, much more than in other European cities. As long as there is a subway station nearby, everything is a short rental. It is an impressive phenomenon because there are no houses. And that means that students or young couples cannot find housing. And that is something that affects the entire city.”

The Jubilee, after losing the possibility of hosting the 2030 Expo, is the spearhead for the transformation of Rome and the way to channel State funds for public works. However, it can also be the last straw that condemns its most vulnerable neighbors.

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