What renting costs in Friuli: rent per square metre, town by town

Each figure is the monthly rent for one square metre of a flat, as estimated by the Property Market Observatory (OMI) of Italy's tax agency. OMI gives a minimum–maximum range for every zone of a town; for each town we take the median of those ranges' mid-points. The square metres are «commercial» ones: besides the rooms they count, at reduced weights, balconies, cellars and other ancillary space. OMI warns that its figures describe an ordinary property and are no substitute for valuing a specific one: a penthouse in the centre or a house needing work falls outside the range.

The coast leads. Trieste and Muggia stand at €8.0/m² a month, Duino Aurisina at €7.5/m² a month, Grado at €6.9/m² a month. Lignano is a case apart: its figure is double Trieste's, but it is a holiday resort, so anyone after a year-round tenancy should treat it with caution. Udine (€5.8/m² a month) is the dearest of the Friulian main towns, ahead of Gorizia and Pordenone, and Monfalcone matches them at €5.1/m² a month. In the mountains Ravascletto, the village of the Zoncolan ski slopes, stands out at €5.1/m² a month.

The lowest rents are on the Slovenian border, in the Natisone valleys and Prepotto: Drenchia, Grimacco, Pulfero, Savogna, Stregna, San Leonardo and Prepotto all stay under €2 per square metre. Just above, at around €2, come Vito d'Asio, seven villages of Carnia, Montenars and, in the Julian Prealps, Taipana and Lusevera. Some of the municipalities that have lost the most residents since 2001 are among them: Drenchia -55%, Savogna -47%, Grimacco -39%. A low rent has to be weighed against services and distances: from Drenchia it takes 57 min to reach an A&E (hospitals and travel times).

OMI quotes a separate rent for detached and semi-detached houses, available in 213 municipalities; in only about a third of them does a house rent for more per square metre than a flat. Trieste: €10.0/m² a month against €8.0/m² a month; Spilimbergo: €4.8/m² a month against €3.1/m² a month; Maniago: €4.3/m² a month against €3.0/m² a month. In Udine, though, a house is worth less per square metre (€4.8/m² a month), and the same goes for Gorizia (€4.9/m² a month). It also matters which OMI zones the houses are quoted in, not always the same as the flats.

A year's rent divided by the OMI price gives the theoretical gross yield. The median across municipalities is 4.8%. The highest figures cluster around Gorizia: Gorizia itself 6.5%, Farra d'Isonzo 6.4%, Mossa 6.4%; outside that province only Lignano (6.5%) and Pordenone (6.0%) reach as high. The lowest is Sappada, 2.3%, where homes are dear compared with rents. These figures come before tax, charges, upkeep and empty months; two neighbouring towns compared in detail: Pordenone or Sacile.

• Open-market rent, 4+4: at least four years, then renewal for four more, except for the grounds for termination set by law.
• Agreed rent, 3+2: three years minimum, then an automatic two-year extension; the rent must stay within the values set by local agreements between landlords' and tenants' associations.
• Cedolare secca: a landlord letting a home outside any business can pay a flat tax instead of income tax and its surcharges, with no registration tax or stamp duty on the lease: 21% of the annual rent, or 10% on agreed-rent leases in high-housing-pressure municipalities, which by law include the provincial capitals (in this region Trieste, Udine, Pordenone and Gorizia) plus others chosen by CIPE, the government's economic planning committee.

Your own tax position is a question for an accountant; short holiday lets follow different rules: short-term rentals.