Empty home in Trieste: the regional grants for letting it

If your Trieste flat has been empty for at least two years and you let it to a household with an ISEE (the Italian means-test indicator) between €12,000 and €20,000, the Region pays you a one-off grant of €2,500 on a 4+4 lease or €3,500 on a lease of at least three years, plus up to €2,500 for works. You apply to the Comune before signing.

Who can get the empty-home grant?

The owner, as a private individual, meeting these conditions on the date of application (regulation 87/2018, article 7):

• resident in Friuli Venezia Giulia for five of the last eight years, with breaks allowed;
• no grant for buying or renovating that home in the last ten years.

The home must have been empty for at least two years on the date of application (article 4) and, when you sign the lease, not be a luxury property, be residential and fit for habitation (article 5).

The tenant must have an ISEE between €12,000 and €20,000 and make the home their registered residence and usual dwelling. The grant is not available between spouses or relatives and in-laws up to the second degree (article 4).

Which leases, and what does it bring in?

The lease is written and registered, of two kinds (articles 4 and 6):

• Grant€2,500Maximum yearly rent25% of the tenant's ISEE

  4+4, at least four years

• Grant€3,500Maximum yearly rent25% of the tenant's ISEE

  3+2 regulated rent, at least three years

On top comes an increase of up to €2,500 if you carry out ordinary or extraordinary maintenance or free-permit building works in the 6 months before applying or the 4 months after. It cannot exceed what you actually paid.

You also need an insurance policy covering damage to the home for the whole term of the lease.

An example: a one-bedroom flat empty for three years

Assumptions: a 55 m² one-bedroom flat empty for three years; a tenant with an ISEE of €16,000; a regulated 3+2 lease; €1,800 of painting and a new boiler, done and paid by you in the 4 months after applying.

1. Maximum rent: 16,000 × 25% = €4,000 a year, i.e. €333.33 a month.
2. Grant: €3,500 + €1,800 increase = €5,300, paid in one go.
3. Spread over the 36 months of the first term: 5,300 ÷ 36 = €147.22 a month. It is like collecting €480.55 a month for three years.

The example's rent must also fall within the range of the local agreement you choose: under the 2025 agreement the minimum is €4.20/m² a month, i.e. €231 for 55 m². The ranges of the two agreements in force are in the guide regulated rent in Trieste.

With its renewal, the 3+2 lasts exactly five years: it matches the commitment. With a 4+4 the commitment outlasts the first four-year expiry and ends before the second.

How do you apply, and when is it paid?

You hand in the application in person at the Comune where the home is, on the Region's form, before signing the lease (article 9). You can apply all year round.

Applying does not entitle you to the grant. The Comune pays in order of arrival, but only out of the funds the Region assigns to it: it requests them within 30 days of the Annual Plan published in the regional Official Bulletin, and if the money falls short the Region shares it out in proportion (article 10). The Region's page on this grant was last updated on 05/06/2024: first of all, ask the Comune di Trieste whether there are funds for the year.

If the tenant leaves before the five years are up, you have 180 days to find another one meeting the same conditions. If you break the commitment, you repay the grant with statutory interest (article 13).

What changes with regional law 6/2026?

The law of 26/06/2026, in force since 30/06/2026, rewrites the Region's housing policy. Article 15 still provides support for those who «let empty dwellings» and for the Comuni's «housing agencies» (agenzie per l'abitare). New amounts and rules will come with a regulation: until then, article 34 says, article 19 of law 1/2016 and its regulation apply.

And if the home needs renovating first?

There is the grant under regional law 8/2025, article 2, for extraordinary maintenance, restoration and renovation: up to 50% of the cost, at most €60,000 per home, for private individuals resident in the region. The renovated home must be let on regulated rent or a temporary lease, not for tourists, or lived in by the owner or a family member meeting certain conditions. Up to three homes in the same building project: each one let this way can get up to €60,000; from the second, a home that does not meet these conditions is capped at €20,000.

In the 2025 ranking, letting for at least five years was worth 50 points, the heaviest criterion.

The 2025 call took applications from 25/08 to 06/10/2025 and is closed. In 2026 the Region set aside €24.2 million to work down the ranking approved on 10/12/2025: as of 27/10/2026 applications 1 to 458 had been funded. There is no new call today.

Two interactions to know:

• the regional grant adds to the national tax deductions, as long as the total does not exceed the cost;
• if you take a grant for renovating the home, for ten years you cannot claim the empty-home grant, which excludes it.