Over 2100 short-term rentals registered in 2024 in Cagliari, where 97% of accommodation facilities are not hotels. Data that, if they are not to be contrasted for the effects they cause, however must "make us question ourselves". Because "in the historic center, the expansion of short-term rentals is producing significant effects: increase in prices, reduction of housing supply for residents, transformation of the identity of neighborhoods".

Words of the city councilor for Urban Planning, Matteo Lecis Cocco Ortu. Barcelona is there in the front row, followed by Florence: centers that have seen an invasion of houses available to tourists, or transformed into B&Bs, which have distorted the heart of the cities, becoming (very) expensive for visitors but lacking services - and housing for sale or rent, precisely - for those who live there. This is where the analysis of the councilor starts, which immediately sparks controversy.

The councilor

"This phenomenon must be addressed seriously and with vision, starting from real data and opening a discussion with all the parties involved. The objective is twofold: to combat vacancy and degradation, and to bring life back to the city's historic districts on a permanent basis", says Cocco Ortu, who says he wants to aim for "a more equitable, inhabited, lively Cagliari: a city that knows how to welcome visitors, but that continues to guarantee the right to housing to those who live there every day".

The insider

The response comes from Maurizio Battelli, who founded Extra, to deal specifically with the tourism sector linked to the rental of properties outside the hotel sector.

"To claim that short-term rentals are a direct cause of urban decay, the emptying of historic centers and the displacement of residents is a superficial and misleading simplification, which is not supported by the data," he attacks, "the most recent studies by Nomisma clearly demonstrate it: it is not short-term rentals that trigger the housing crisis, but rather the lack of a structured housing policy, combined with much more complex real estate dynamics."

Although it must be said that the study cited, according to what was recently revealed by the La7 programme 100 Minuti, was commissioned by AirBnB and was paid between 50 and 60 thousand euros.

If the one illustrated by Lecis Cocco Ortu «is the line of the Municipality, it should be explicitly declared: where do we want the tourists who choose Cagliari to stay? Do we prefer a centralized and impersonal offer or a widespread, authentic and integrated welcome in the urban fabric?», asks Battelli.

Short-term rentals "represent a sector that is already widely regulated, tracked and subject to controls, which has contributed concretely to the valorization of real estate assets, the redevelopment of forgotten neighborhoods and the creation of a widespread economy. Comparing Cagliari to places like Florence, Naples or Venice, as if they were the same phenomena, reveals a profound lack of knowledge of the dimensions at stake. Just to give a concrete reference: the entire annual turnover of the non-hotel sector in Cagliari is less than that generated in a single month of high season by Florence. We are not facing an invasion, but a manageable and already well-disciplined opportunity".

For the representative of the operators in the sector, "this continuous attack on the short-term rental sector is incomprehensible, based on causal connections that have no basis in objective data. A sector that, in Cagliari, has brought widespread wealth, a culture of hospitality, the reorganization of entire neighborhoods, the recovery of degraded buildings. All of which the public, despite having the tools, has often avoided doing".

The opposition

Giuseppe Farris, municipal councilor of CiviCa 2024, who has presented several questions on the subject in the Council, explains that "we need to reconcile two apparently opposing needs: the right to do business and the identity of the city. It is undeniable that B&Bs have created income and employment, but it is equally undeniable that by contributing to raising the prices of ordinary rentals they have distanced the younger segments of the population from the city center, contributing to changing the structure of Cagliari, with fewer services for residents and more for hit-and-run tourists. In this context", concludes Farris, " the Municipality, instead of mediating between the different interests, has washed its hands of it: there is no administrative action that has brought the problem into focus".

Enrico Fresu

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