Milan Faces Severe Housing Crisis: 60,000 on Council House Waiting List
Milan, January 16, 2026 – A critical housing emergency is gripping Italy, with 250,000 families nationwide currently on waiting lists for council houses. This issue is particularly acute in major urban centers, where the high cost of living exacerbates the problem and excludes many from the housing market. Milan, identified as having the most expensive housing market in Italy, stands out with 20,000 individuals on the waiting list within the city proper, a figure that escalates to 60,000 when considering its hinterland and neighboring municipalities. Other metropolitan areas also report significant numbers, including Rome with 16,000, Turin with 10,000, and Bologna with over 6,000.
Federcasa Highlights Widespread Emergency
The alarming statistics come from Federcasa, an umbrella organization representing 85 entities responsible for managing public housing across Italy. These bodies, operating under various names such as Atc, Ater, Iacp, Aler, and Arca, oversee approximately 800,000 housing units that accommodate over two million people. The data, updated to December 31, 2024, are preliminary findings from the forthcoming Federcasa Observatory. Marco Buttieri, president of Federcasa, emphasizes the continuous and automatic allocation of housing, which leads to variability in these numbers, yet they effectively illustrate the sheer scale of housing demand. This demand extends beyond social housing to include waiting lists for students and subsidized housing, indicating an even greater challenge for the government’s upcoming housing plan.
The National Housing Plan and Critical Issues
Buttieri stresses the urgent need for a focused approach on public housing within both European and national housing plans. He advocates for robust support for the administrative bodies managing these properties, suggesting regulatory reforms. One proposed measure is the removal of IMU and IRES taxes for these management companies, which would help stabilize budgets and fund essential extraordinary maintenance. Buttieri highlights that public housing serves as a crucial social safety net for the most vulnerable, with average monthly rents around 100 euros. Without adequate support, this system risks collapse.
A significant challenge within the 250,000-person waiting list is that a portion of these applicants may never receive a council house. Despite being eligible to apply, their low scores often prevent them from securing a favorable position in the rankings. These families face severe housing distress, struggling to access the conventional market, and turn to social housing despite slim chances of success.
Unassignable Properties and Illegal Occupations
Another critical issue is the substantial number of unassignable properties among the 800,000 theoretically available housing units. Approximately 60,000 properties are currently vacant and uninhabitable due to issues such as non-standard installations, dilapidated bathrooms, and outdated windows and doors. These homes are often returned in extremely poor condition, and the cost of necessary extraordinary maintenance, averaging 20-25 thousand euros per unit, is prohibitive for the managing bodies, which collect only modest fees. Additionally, 24-25 thousand dwellings are subject to unlawful occupation. In total, over 80,000 dwellings-10% of the national stock-are effectively unavailable for assignment.
Lombardy and Milan’s Specific Challenges
Lombardy and Milan mirror these national challenges, with nearly 8,000 vacant homes due to a lack of maintenance. Milan alone accounts for 3,954 of these, with Brescia reporting 1,520, Bergamo 481, Varese 955, and Pavia 906. These figures do not include illegally occupied properties. An additional problem is the 25% delinquency rate in regular assignments. Milan has 64,000 social housing units, with roughly 28,000 owned by the municipality and 36,000 by Aler Milano. This constraint on supply exacerbates the already high demand for council housing in the city. The Milan municipality alone has about 20,000 people on its waiting list, rising to 60,000 across the wider metropolitan area. With only about 1,300 housing assignments made annually in the city, the rate of addressing the waiting list is notably slow.
This situation starkly illustrates the phenomenon of social exclusion and the prohibitive costs of living in large metropolitan areas, even for the middle class. Fabio Bottero, Councillor for Public Housing of the Municipality of Milan, acknowledges the significant challenges but expresses optimism about ongoing projects. He highlights the
