You checked Milan’s rents again this week, hoping the number had changed. It hasn’t changed: they remain above 23 euros per square meter, and if you’re among those who earn too much for public housing but too little to afford them, in recent months you’ve probably heard about a “housing plan” that’s supposed to solve exactly this problem. Actually, there’s more than one.
It’s not déjà vu: there really are two different plans, managed by two different agencies, with different timelines. One comes from the Lombardy Region, the other from Palazzo Marino. And before you get your hopes up: neither of them means “apply and move in”—at least not yet.
The Region’s plan: 96 million for those who earn “too much”
The Region has allocated 96 million euros to renovate 2,500 public and private housing units that are currently uninhabitable, without using any new land, specifically for this income bracket: households with an ISEE between 14,000 and 40,000 euros—too high for public housing and too low for the free market you just checked—which in the Historic Center can reach as high as 35 euros per square meter. The call for proposals, however, closes on October 30 for companies, cooperatives, municipalities, ALER, and third-sector organizations: they are the ones submitting the projects. Households will only come into the picture later on: the completion of the work is scheduled for no later than December 31, 2029, with a final report due in June 2030.
The City’s plan: 10,000 housing units over ten years, and a call for applications that closes in two weeks
Palazzo Marino’s Extraordinary Plan for Affordable Housing is more ambitious but moves more slowly: it aims for 10,000 housing units over ten years, 6,500 in the City of Milan alone, with rent caps set at around 80–90 euros per square meter per year—about 375 euros per month for a 50-square-meter two-room apartment, up to 400 for a 60-square-meter apartment. That same 50-square-meter two-room apartment, in the Navigli-Bocconi or Garibaldi-Porta Venezia neighborhoods, currently costs about 1,200–1,350 euros per month on the open market; the rent-controlled version costs about one-third of that.
The most concrete development right now is the call for bids for Via Trivulzio 18, in Municipality 7: the first municipal building withdrawn from sale and designated for social housing, with bids open until September 11. At the same time, the City has launched two international design competitions for Zama-Salomone, in Taliedo, and Porto di Mare, between Corvetto and Nosedo—two enormous public areas it aims to transform into new neighborhoods, although here the timeline is measured in years, not months.
Who can apply now (and who has to wait)
Once again, those responding to the call for proposals on Via Trivulzio aren’t the tenants but the operators who will eventually manage the property. It’s the same process as the regional call for proposals: first, they select who will build or renovate, then they open applications for those who will actually live there—with timelines that, here too, are measured in years.
The fundamental problem remains—one that neither plan can solve on its own: the real housing crisis in Lombardy is measured by the approximately 67,000 families on the waiting list for public housing —out of 650,000 across Italy, according to the most recent data from tenants’ unions—compared to 2,500 regional housing units and 6,500 municipal units spread out over a decade.
Among the housing incentives announced so far in Milan, these remain among the most comprehensive, but for now they apply to builders, not those looking for a home: on September 11 and October 30, only the winners of the bidding processes will be determined. The real opportunities for tenants will come only once the projects are completed.
For the regional program, completion is scheduled by 2029; for the municipal one, there are still no definite dates.
