Regulated rent: what the tenant gains in Trieste

A deal with limits, for both sides

With regulated rent the landlord does not set the rent alone: it sits within a range set by the local rent agreement, signed by the landlords’ associations and the tenants’ associations. In return the landlord pays less tax (see cedolare secca and ILIA). You gain public rules, a rent cap, a deduction and a long term.

The cap does not necessarily mean a rent below the market: it depends on the home, and with the increases the maximum goes up. The advantage is that the sum can be redone item by item. In Trieste the City publishes two agreements in force, the extended 2022 one and the 2025 one (see 2022 or 2025?): for a new lease, as we read the texts, the parties choose one. The lease must say which one it applies, and the rent is checked against that one.

A rent with a cap

The rent is calculated from the home: zone, floor area, features. Under the 2025 agreement it runs from a minimum of €4.20 per square metre per month, the same in every zone, to a maximum that depends on the zone and the band; the band is set by a score of 30 items, from the lift to double glazing. Under the 2022 agreement the values are per square metre per year. The figures are in the tables.

The landlord can add increases, if the conditions are met. Under the 2025 agreement: up to 22% for a fully furnished home, 12% in energy class A or B and 7% in C or D, up to 20% for the transitional lease. Reductions are compulsory: in class G the minimum and the maximum go down by 10%.

The calculator shows the two ranges side by side, one for each agreement. If the proposed rent is above the range, ask how it was calculated: there may be a floor-area error, an increase that is not due, or a sum done with the other agreement.

If the rent exceeds the maximum

In a 3+2 at regulated rent “any agreement aimed at giving the landlord a rent higher than the maximum” set by the agreement “is void” (art. 13, paragraph 4, of Law 431/1998). The tenant can claim back what they paid in excess, with an action to be brought within six months of returning the home, and can ask the court to bring the lease back into line with the law (paragraph 6).

Before going to court there are simpler routes: talking to the landlord, calculation in hand, or asking for the joint negotiation committee (commissione di negoziazione paritetica) of the ministerial decree of 16 January 2017. It works if the other party agrees, and it finishes within sixty days. Asking for it costs nothing; under the 2025 agreement only the document costs remain with the parties, and the tenant turns to a tenants’ association that signed it.

IRPEF deductions for the tenant

If yours is a 3+2 at regulated rent and the home is your main home, that is the one where you or your family usually live, you deduct from IRPEF (personal income tax) €495.80 with a total income up to €15,493.71 and €247.90 up to €30,987.41. Above this threshold the deduction is not available. With a free-market lease the deduction is €300 or €150, with the same thresholds. The rule is in art. 16 of the Testo unico delle imposte sui redditi (TUIR, the income tax code), which from 2027 becomes art. 16 of the new Consolidated Income Tax Act.

Three cases have their own rules:

• Young people aged 20 to under 31, with income up to €15,493.71, who move out of their parents’ home: for the first four years €991.60, or 20% of the rent if higher, up to €2,000.
• Employees transferred in the last three years to the municipality where they work, or to a neighbouring one, at least 100 kilometres away and outside their own region: for three years €991.60 up to €15,493.71 of income, €495.80 up to €30,987.41. Someone coming from Udine is not entitled: it is the same region.
• Out-of-town university students: they have their own deduction, explained in the article on students.

Deductions cannot be combined: you choose the most favourable one, and among several tenants named on the lease it is split. They count for the months in which the home was your main home. If your tax is lower, the part that does not fit is still credited to you.

How long it lasts and how you get out

The 3+2 lasts at least three years and at the first expiry is extended by two on its own. The landlord can prevent this only for the reasons in the law, with at least six months’ notice and the reason in writing: for example if the home is needed for themselves or a close family member, if the building must be entirely renovated, or if they are selling and own no other homes besides their own. In this last case you have the right of first refusal: you can buy, on the same terms.

After the five years either party can ask to renew on new terms or to end the lease, by registered letter at least six months before; if nobody writes, the lease renews by itself (see renewal and ISTAT). You can leave at any time for serious reasons, giving six months’ notice in a registered letter. The law does not list the serious reasons: if you might have to move, talk about it before signing.

The rent is updated with ISTAT (the Italian National Institute of Statistics) only if the landlord asks for it in writing, from the second year, by at most 75% of the change. If the landlord has chosen the cedolare secca, the update is suspended by law for as long as the option lasts.

What to check before signing

1. Which agreement the lease cites, and that the rent is within its range.
2. The certificate, if the lease is not assisted by the associations: it is issued by an association that signed the agreement applied (or has adhered to it) and, under the 2025 agreement, the tenant can request it too. See the certificate.
3. The APE, the energy performance certificate: it must be made available to you already during negotiations. If the rent uses the energy increase, under the 2025 agreement the lease states the number, date and class of a valid APE.
4. The furnishing: under the 2025 agreement the increase requires the list of furniture attached to the lease, and does not apply if the kitchen is not furnished and fully equipped with appliances.
5. The costs: who pays what is set by Annex D of the decree of 16 January 2017, referred to in art. 15 of the 2025 agreement. Before paying the balancing charge you are entitled to know item by item what you are paying for and to see the documents.
6. Deposit and registration: in the standard lease the deposit does not exceed three months’ rent. The landlord registers the lease within thirty days and tells you; the registration tax, if due, is split in half.
7. The handover: a report with photos and the inventory of the furniture.

The City’s rent subsidy

The City of Trieste gives a subsidy to people who pay rent on their main home and have a low income, on the previous year’s rents, even with a free-market rent. The last notice we read, the 2026 notice on 2025 rents, closed on 27 March 2026: requirements and amounts must be read in each year’s notice. Note: subsidy and deduction for the same year cannot be combined, and whoever uses the deduction loses the subsidy.

TriesteAffitti works mainly with landlords: that is exactly why we want regulated-rent leases done properly on both sides.