Empty home in Trieste: what it costs to keep it unlet, what it earns

In the example in this guide, a 60 m² two-room flat kept empty in Trieste costs €848.10 a year in taxes between ILIA, IRPEF and TARI, and €2,348.10 with condominium charges and utilities, if the owner lives in Trieste in a home of their own. Let on a regulated rent lease (canone concordato) at €600 a month, it leaves you €5,770.50 a year: the two choices are €8,118.60 apart.

How much ILIA do you pay on an empty home?

The base is the cadastral income (rendita catastale) × 1.05 × 160. The Comune di Trieste's 2026 rate depends on the home:

• 0.70% for the "first second home": one dwelling only in the whole region, besides the one you live in, named through the online notice to the Region, due by 30 June of the next year, or the right is lost. The notice stays valid for the following years. Cellar and garage do not get the 0.70%.
• 1.06% for other second homes, and for the first one if you have not notified it: the highest rate the regional law allows the Comune.
• Half the base if the home is unfit for use or uninhabitable and actually unused, with a survey by the Comune or a sworn declaration (dichiarazione sostitutiva). The Comune requires decay that maintenance cannot fix: lacking utility connections alone is not enough.

Do you also pay IRPEF on an empty home?

As a rule, no: since 2023 ILIA replaces IRPEF and surcharges on the income of homes that are not let, under the same rule as IMU. The exception: if the empty home is in the same municipality as your main residence, and that residence is yours (owned or held under another property right), the empty home's income enters IRPEF at 50%. And the income of a home kept at your disposal is the rendita revalued by 5% and increased by a third.

The sum is rendita × 1.05 × 4/3 × 50%, at your IRPEF rate plus surcharges. If you rent the home you live in, in Trieste, or if the empty home is in Muggia or Duino Aurisina, this IRPEF does not apply.

Do you pay TARI even if the home is empty?

Yes, if it is connected to electricity or other public services: for homes, the regulation looks at the connections, not the furniture. In Trieste:

• No TARI if you declare there are no connections, or during authorised renovation, restoration or conservative refurbishment works, while the permit is valid and no later than the end of the works.
• 30% less for a home kept at your disposal for limited and occasional use, provided you do not let it or lend it on a free-loan basis (comodato), even briefly, during the year, and you file the declaration.
• Your household counts, if you live in Trieste: the 2026 tariff for 2 people is €1.06 per m² plus €132.82 a year; for one person, €0.90 per m² plus €56.92. On top comes TEFA, a percentage of TARI set by the Region.
• If you let it, TARI is owed by whoever occupies the home, that is the tenant; for an occupancy of up to six months in the year it is owed by the owner alone.

Example: a 60 m² two-room flat, empty or let

Assumptions: 60 m², rendita of €500; owner living in Trieste in their own home, household of 2, taxable income between €28,000 and €50,000; flat notified as "first second home". Condominium charges €1,200 a year, of which €900 are service costs (cleaning, lift, heating) that by law, unless agreed otherwise, the tenant pays. Fixed utility charges €300 a year, which pass to a tenant. Condominium and utilities are assumptions: use your own figures.

Kept empty for a year:

1. ILIA: base 500 × 1.05 × 160 = €84,000; at 0.70%, €588.
2. IRPEF: 500 × 1.05 × 4/3 × 50% = €350 of income; at 33% plus the regional surcharge (1.23%) and the Trieste municipal surcharge (0.8%), that is at 35.03%, €122.61.
3. TARI: 1.06 × 60 + 132.82 = €196.42; with 30% off, €137.49, excluding TEFA.
4. Condominium and utilities: 1,200 + 300 = €1,500.

Total €2,348.10 a year, of which €848.10 is tax.

• Regulated rent 3+2 at €600€7,200Free market 4+4 at €700€8,400

  Annual rent

• EmptyIRPEF €122.61Regulated rent 3+2 at €60010% cedolare: €720Free market 4+4 at €70021% cedolare: €1,764

  Income tax

• Empty€588Regulated rent 3+2 at €600€409.50Free market 4+4 at €700€588

  ILIA

• Empty€137.49Regulated rent 3+2 at €600owed by the tenantFree market 4+4 at €700owed by the tenant

  TARI

• Empty€1,500Regulated rent 3+2 at €600€300Free market 4+4 at €700€300

  Condominium and utilities you pay

• Empty−€2,348.10Regulated rent 3+2 at €600+€5,770.50Free market 4+4 at €700+€5,748

  Balance for the year

On a regulated rent, Trieste's ILIA rate is 0.65% and, with the declaration to Esatto SpA and the lease with its certificate (attestazione), you pay 75% of it: 84,000 × 0.65% × 75% = €409.50. Between keeping it empty and letting it on a regulated rent there is €8,118.60 a year. The free market at €700 earns almost as much as the regulated rent at €600, because it pays cedolare at 21% instead of 10% and full ILIA. If the flat were not your "first second home", ILIA would rise to €890.40 (84,000 × 1.06%), both empty and on the free market, and the regulated rent would beat the free market by €324.90.

The sum leaves out the months between one tenant and the next, maintenance and the cost of the certificate: range and certificate are in our guide to regulated rent.

When is letting not worth it?

• If there is work to do. Better do it first. With a 3+2 or a 4+4, at the first expiry you can refuse renewal only for the reasons set by law and with at least 6 months' notice: for works, it takes something like the full renovation of the whole building, with the building permit. And the territorial agreement of 15/12/2025, one of the two in force in Trieste, rewards the energy class: a range 7% higher with an energy certificate (APE) in class C or D, 12% in A or B; class G takes off 10%.
• If you will need it soon. A 3+2 lasts at least 3 years, then is extended by law for 2, except for the reasons the law lists: for example use by you, your spouse, parents, children or a relative up to the second degree. A temporary lease (transitorio), from 1 to 18 months, ends at expiry, but needs a need listed in the agreement and documented: in the 2025 one, for example, the home for a child who is getting married.
• If you will sell within a year or two. At the first expiry, selling is a ground for refusing renewal only if you own no other homes besides the one you live in, and the tenant has the right of first refusal. A lease with a certain date (data certa) before the sale, which registration gives it, also binds the buyer.

What you lose by keeping it empty: in the example, €2,348.10 of costs and €5,770.50 of net rent every year. Over three years, the minimum term of a 3+2, that is €24,355.80, with rules and amounts unchanged.