Which lease for your home in Trieste: 4+4, 3+2 or temporary

In Trieste, if you let a home to a person as their residence for more than 30 days, the only lease with a free rent is the 4+4: a temporary lease, a 3+2 and a student lease all have their rent within the bands of the territorial agreement. Article 1 of Law 431/1998 makes exceptions for listed buildings, homes registered as A/1, A/8, A/9 at the land registry, public housing (edilizia residenziale pubblica), homes let exclusively for tourist purposes and homes rented by a local authority for temporary housing needs. For every other home the choice depends on two questions: when you want it back and who will live in it.

The options side by side

• 4+4 free marketLength4 yearsRentfreeCedolare21%

  renews for 4, except on the grounds of art. 3

• 3+2 regulated rentLength3 yearsRentagreement bandsCedolare10%

  extended by 2 years, except on the grounds of art. 3

• TemporaryLength1–18 monthsRentagreement bandsCedolare10%

  ends, no notice needed

• StudentsLength6–36 monthsRentagreement bandsCedolare10%

  renews for the same period, unless the student gives notice

Which agreement applies in Trieste?

For the Comune di Trieste there are two territorial agreements in force (page updated on 26/08/2026): the one of 14/12/2022, which a protocol of 11/12/2025 extends for the organisations that sign it, and the one filed on 15/12/2025 by UNSICASA, CASAMIA, UNPI, FE.N.I.T. and ANIA. The 2025 text, in article 1, says it entirely replaces the 2022 one.

If you sign a regulated rent lease without the assistance of the organisations, to get the tax breaks you need the certificate (attestazione) of at least one organisation that signed the agreement (ministerial decree of 16/01/2017): for the Agenzia delle Entrate it is a "necessary element" for the 10% cedolare and for the income-tax and registration breaks (resolution 31/E of 2018).

When does a temporary lease make sense?

When you want the home free within 18 months, or the person moving in has a temporary need. The 2025 agreement sets the length at 1 to 18 months and lists 15 needs, 5 of the owner and 10 of the tenant: for example a home for a child getting married, a fixed-term job in another municipality, an internship, medical care. One is enough, even of only one of the parties.

Three rules that do not forgive:

• The need must be written into the lease and, beyond 30 days, documented. The 2025 agreement also accepts a substitute declaration (dichiarazione sostitutiva, articles 46 and 47 of Presidential Decree 445/2000).
• The rent stays within the bands, even without the cedolare: the 2017 decree requires it in municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, except for leases of up to 30 days. The 2025 agreement allows up to 20% more for temporary leases.
• If you do not respect the length, the rent or the documented need, the lease is brought back to the length of a 4+4 (2017 decree, art. 2).

The compulsory ministerial template (Annex B) says the temporary lease "ends without any need for notice". It gets the 10% cedolare (circular 8/E of 2017) and the regulated rent ILIA reduction, but not the income-tax and registration breaks, which art. 8 of the law excludes for temporary leases.

Mind what comes next: if at expiry you get the home back by declaring a specific use and, without a justified reason, you do not carry it out within 6 months, the tenant is entitled to have the lease restored on 4+4 terms or to compensation equal to 36 months of the last rent (Annex B, art. 3).

The 3+2 regulated rent: stable income, lower tax

It lasts at least 3 years, then is extended by law by 2. At the end of the 5 years either party can ask for new terms or decline renewal by registered letter at least 6 months before; if nobody writes, it renews for 2 years, at every expiry.

At the first expiry you can get the home back only on the grounds of article 3 of Law 431/1998, which include your own use or that of your spouse or relatives up to the second degree, a full refurbishment, or a sale if you own no other homes besides your own. The ground must be stated in the notice, on pain of nullity, with at least 6 months' notice.

In return:

• 10% cedolare instead of 21%;
• ILIA 2026 at 0.65% instead of the 1.06% for homes other than your main residence (0.70% for the first such home in the Region, if notified), then reduced to 75%: the Comune asks for a registered lease, the certificate and a declaration to Esatto SPA;
• without the cedolare, taxable income reduced by a further 30% and registration tax on 70% of the rent.

Example: 4+4 or 3+2, what you keep

Example assumptions: a home that would let for 9,600 € a year at a free rent or 8,400 € at a regulated rent, an ILIA taxable base of 80,000 € (full rate), cedolare in both cases.

• Annual rent

  4+4 free market: 9,600 €

  3+2 regulated rent: 8,400 €

• Cedolare

  4+4 free market: 21% × 9,600 = 2,016 €

  3+2 regulated rent: 10% × 8,400 = 840 €

• ILIA

  4+4 free market: 1.06% × 80,000 = 848 €

  3+2 regulated rent: 0.65% × 80,000 × 75% = 390 €

• You keep

  4+4 free market: 9,600 − 2,016 − 848 = 6,736 €

  3+2 regulated rent: 8,400 − 840 − 390 = 7,170 €

The 3+2 leaves you 434 € a year more with 1,200 € less rent. The 4+4 would pay more only above 10,149 € of free rent: (7,170 + 848) / 0.79, because after the cedolare you keep 79%.

The 4+4 free market: you set the rent

It is the choice if the rent you want is above the agreement's maximum. The price is time: 4 years plus another 4, with the same article 3 grounds for not renewing at the first expiry. At the second, either party can decline by registered letter at least 6 months before; without one, it renews on the same terms.

With the 21% cedolare you give up, for as long as the option lasts, any rent increase, ISTAT indexation included, even if the lease provides for it.

Students and PhD candidates

Trieste is a university city: the student lease applies to anyone enrolled in a degree or a postgraduate course (the 2025 agreement also mentions Erasmus) who is resident in another municipality. It lasts 6 months to 3 years and at the first expiry renews for the same period, unless the student gives notice between 1 and 3 months before. The student can withdraw for serious reasons by registered letter at least 3 months before.

The tax treatment is that of the 3+2: art. 8 of the law excludes the breaks for temporary leases but not for students, the 2017 decree (art. 5) gives them the reduced cedolare, and ILIA is reduced too. The 2025 agreement allows up to 10% more for leases over 18 months.

And if the tenant is a company?

If a company signs to house an employee ("uso foresteria"), for the Agenzia delle Entrate there is no cedolare: it is excluded with tenants acting as a business or as self-employed, "regardless of the later use" for employees (page updated on 29/05/2026). The Supreme Court, with interlocutory order 30016 of 13/11/2025, sent the question to its First President for possible assignment to the joint chambers (Sezioni Unite): before you sign, ask your accountant whether they have ruled.

The alternative is to put the lease in the employee's name: for the housing of non-resident workers the 2017 decree provides for regulated rent leases "with the direct users" (con i diretti fruitori).