Four-room apartment (actually comprising a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and bedroom), sixth floor, in Mulinu Becciu, a suburb of Cagliari. Price: €1,000 per month for an unfurnished 80 square meters. One of many rental listings in the capital. And one of the few that doesn't include the word "seasonal." This means the owner offers it from October to May, and for the rest of the year it's reserved for tourists, for short but certainly more profitable periods.
Spain will go to new elections after the Sanchez government failed to pass decrees specifically designed to govern housing policy. The fire was sparked by the case of an elderly disabled woman whose rent was increased after her home became the property of a large, profit-driven real estate company. The people who held the keys took to the streets, those who couldn't afford to pay rent, much less consider buying a home. There were tens of thousands of them.
And what about Italy and Cagliari? The frustration of those seeking shelter is documented by real estate agencies. Seventy square meters in the Piazza Repubblica area are asking €1,100 a month. If you move away from the center, lowering your asking price can lead you to Monreale, in Pirri. But here, renters are demanding high prices: a 54-square-meter two-room apartment is on the market for the modest sum of €750 a month. Add €350 for a further 20 square meters in Castello, and you'll reach €1,100. Too much? There's always Is Mirrionis on Via Barbusi, but it's not necessarily worth it: a 24-square-meter studio apartment is asking €420. The advantage is that you don't waste energy walking from the bed to the bathroom. Moving away from the city center doesn't always mean saving money: in Via Stampa – a residential area near the Cep – a 90-square-meter three-room apartment costs €1,500 a month.
One might say: to spend so much, it's better to take out a mortgage. Provided you have a solid salary and the bank will allow it. For the lucky ones, here are some "offers" from over 1,200 on a specialized website: a studio apartment on Viale Cimitero is listed for €360,000, about € 7,200 per square meter. Ninety square meters at the Fonsarda apartment building cost €270,000, which works out to a solid €3,000 per square meter. The "advantage"? The bathrooms on this fifth floor were redone "about" ten years ago. Just trust me. If you're moving to Pirri, there's Via Pepe: the three-room apartment is new, the 80-square-meter extension costs €3,375 each, for a total of €270,000. A larger house for sale on Via Boito, in the San Benedetto neighborhood, offers 109 square meters at €2,899 each, for a total of €425,000.
If you're single and undemanding, you can always opt for a studio apartment. There are some on Via Giardini, in Villanova. The owner is asking €150,000 for 35 square meters (4,286 square meters each).
And thank goodness, the fuel needed to visit potentially purchasable properties is cheap. Or maybe not even that.
