From Milan to Europe, the scourge of high rents. Here’s how London, Vienna and Paris are fighting it
The story of Giuseppina Giugliano, commuter janitor between Naples and Milanalbeit with all its controversies, it has once again brought to the fore a theme that concerns many cities, both Italian and European: that of expensive rent. Finding a house, or even just a room, in the big cities of the country – from Milan to Rome via Bologna – and of the continent – from Paris to London, from Geneva to Amsterdam – has become increasingly difficult in recent years, with prices for a single verses that often come perilously close and even surpass 50% of the average salary of the workers of these cities. While to offer a dignified quality of life, 30% is normally indicated by the experts as the limit quota that the rent installment can occupy with respect to the monthly salary. In Milan, as is known, it is not uncommon to spend 600-700 euros for a single room near the center, and touch i 1,800 euros per month for a two-room apartment. Second Live everywhere, the Milanese capital is the fourth largest city in Europe in terms of rental prices. More expensive than Paris, Berlin and Munich. The average salary of an entry level position? 27 thousand euros a year. To try to solve the problem, several cities have moved in different directions, with very good results in some cases. Today we see three approaches: that of London – where salaries are adjusted to the higher cost of living in the capital; Of Vienna – which has made social housing its signature; and of Pariswhich has railed against short-term rentals.
The London Adjustment
According to the specialized site SpareRoom, renting a single room in the British capital costs on average £906 a month. For an average salary of £32,500 annually for jobs in positions basic level. The figures are very different if you look at the whole country, with the rent of a single room falling by a third, and reaching 660 pounds per month, and salaries following a similar trend, coming in at £25,500 annual. A substantial difference between the capital and the rest of the country, which the UK has tried to deal with a London salary adjustment at the highest cost of living in the city on the Thames. On average, a London worker perceives himself £4,000 a year extra of another person doing the same job, for the same company, but in another city. It is an aid that has proved to be essential in allowing the inhabitants of the British capital to have one acceptable standard of living. Although, according to a study published in May 2022 by Loughborough University, to be adequate for the recent increases, the subsidy should reach £6,500 a year.
The Vienna model
If Vienna appears at the top of the rankings on best cities for quality of life, this is also due to the success of its real estate policy. In the Austrian capital, approx six out of ten people live in case they are paid thanks to some form of facilitation. Social housing is found in all districts of the city, not just in the suburbs, and many times they have little to do with the dilapidated building popular Italian. These are properties that are indistinguishable from private ones. The system also works because the low house prices of the Municipality and the State force private individuals to adjust. Prices cannot be too high because otherwise no one would show up to see the houses. In a sense, the action of the free market on real estate. The result is that little more than is enough One thousand Euro to rent an apartment of 85 square meters and two bedrooms in a residential area, between 700 and 850 is enough for a studio apartment single verse in the central area around the 500, but if you move away from the center, even less. All against an average salary for positions basic level of about 32 thousand euros a year.
Paris versus Airbnb
In recent years, it has also contributed to the spread of platforms such as Airbnb, which with short-term rentals have allowed many to offer accommodation in the houses they own at higher prices than long-term ones. In the case of Paris, up to 3.5 times more profitable of long-term rentals. In 2016, France approved a law that allows city governments to remove the possibility of renting for short periods to the owners if they do not respect certain parameters. It is still too early to understand how much the new law will impact on rental prices. But when it went into effect, the properties listed by Airbnb in the French capital were between 4 and 7% of the total. Numbers that further reduce the availability of medium and long-term accommodation, causing prices to rise.