Finding a room in Rome

Finding a room for rent in Rome – or even a bed in a shared room! – is TOUGH. With around 40,000 students living away from home as well as countless Italian and foreign workers who don’t earn enough to rent a whole apartment to themselves, competition is fierce. 

If you’re a student, your first port of call should be your university: they may be able to help you find accommodation, or they may have student digs of their own that you can use. Here are some useful links/email addresses for the main universities: 

  1. Sapienza
  2. Tor Vergata:
  3. Roma Tre:
  4. Trinity College Rome
  5. John Cabot
  6. American University of Rome
  7. LUISS
  8. LUMSA

What about if your university can’t help – or you’re not a student?

It’s usually easier to find a room once you’re already in Rome. This also has the advantage of being able to visit potential accommodation in person, reducing the risk of running into scammers (see below for more on this topic) and giving you the chance to meet your future housemates.

However, it also means you might need somewhere to stay for a few weeks while you’re looking for a long-term solution. Online platforms are your best option in this case: while they will be more costly, sites like Spotahome.com, Airbnb.com and Housinganywhere.com offer the reassurance that the room you’re paying for over the internet does actually exist and will be available to you when you get to Rome – giving you peace of mind before your arrival and a place to sleep while you look for a more permanent solution.

To find that solution, Facebook comes into its own. There are a multitude of groups for people looking for (or offering) accommodation in Rome, such as: 

You could also try venturing into the Italian language groups, such as: 

Cerco offro camera stanza in affitto a Roma

Affitti Roma

Appartamenti e camera in affitto Roma

This is not an exhaustive list – you’ll find other groups by searching for “rooms for rent in Rome” or “camera in affitto a Roma”. General and social groups for expats in Rome may also be useful, such as Expats in Rome Noticeboard and (for women) Rome | Girl Gone International and That Chick in Rome 

When using these groups, look out for any WhatsApp groups mentioned in them and try to get added to them. Many rooms are let out by word of mouth, without ever being advertised. Take a young friend of mine: of the three rooms she’s rented here in the last 18 months, she found one through sheer serendipity – messaging a friend who happened to have a friend who was looking for a lodger right at that moment – and the other two through a WhatsApp group.

You also need to beware of scammers: both the Facebook groups and (to a lesser extent) the WhatsApp chats are full of them. If it seems too good to be true, leave well alone. Bear in mind that in more central areas, a room generally costs upwards of €600 a month and a bed in a shared room is €400 a month or more, so be extremely cautious about any “bargains” costing less than that. If you’re lucky, it’ll just be a bad room (damp, noisy, in a basement or way out in the sticks). If you’re unlucky, you’ll just have handed your money over to a scammer. (And on that note: never send ID, or wire any money, directly to someone claiming to have a room available: you’ll never see them, or your money, again. The only time you should ever send any money to reserve a room is if it’s through a trustworthy platform such as Spotahome or Airbnb.) See my articles here and here for red flags you should be looking out for.

You may also find it useful to scour the main property websites like idealista.com: another friend found her current room by setting the site up to ping her every time a room meeting her requirements came up. She then just sent a basic message in Italian (using Google Translate) giving a few personal details, actually got a few responses, and is now happily living in her new digs.

There are also some agencies specialising in renting rooms to students and workers: try affitto studenti (website in English and Italian); Gabri Camera https://www.gabricamera.it/ (website in Italian only)

Some rooms may also be offered through agencies on the main property websites.

While going through an agency will cost more, as you will have to pay their fee (typically between 1 month’s rent and 15% of the annual rent, plus 22% VAT), it does offer greater peace of mind, as you’ll be protected from the risk of…

Dodgy dealings

There are a few points you should watch out for when renting a room directly from a landlord:

  • As a foreign student or worker in Rome, you will almost certainly need to declare the address of the place you are living as your place of habitual residence. For this reason it’s essential a) that you have an official contract and b) that your landlord registers it. (The registration fee is 2% of the annual rent, and by law is split equally between the landlord and tenant, so it’s perfectly OK if he asks you to pay your share.)
  • To reduce the amount of tax he has to pay, your landlord may claim on the contract that, say, 50% of your rent is for expenses, such as heating, utility bills, etc. That doesn’t actually make any difference to you – except if he then comes back in winter asking for more money because of increased heating or electricity bills, you know that officially, you are already paying an extortionate amount for such expenses  – so ask to see the bills before you give him any more money! (As a very rough guide, you might expect to pay around €100 a month in total for the gas and electricity bills for a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment, plus another €100 a month for the heating in winter – and, of course, those bills should be split between however many of you there are living in the apartment.)
  • Another dodge your landlord might use to reduce his tax bill is to declare in the contract a rent lower than the amount he is actually charging you. It’s entirely up to you whether you’re prepared to go along with this – he is committing tax evasion, but you’re not committing any offence. You should be aware, in any case, that under Italian law the only valid rent is the one that’s written in the contract – you are under no legal obligation to pay any more, whatever you’ve agreed to do under the table.
  • Make sure that the amount of any security deposit you’re asked to pay is included in the contract: you are entitled for it to be returned (assuming you leave your room in the same condition as you found it!) when you move out, as well any interest due. 

Final Thoughts

Finding a room to rent in Rome isn’t easy, but it can be done. Networking and prompt action are key, so get your social game together and get moving!

Disclaimer

Please note the above information is shared in good faith but is not intended and should not be construed as legal advice, and might not reflect current Italian law. I recommend consulting a lawyer for any legal or contractual concerns you may have.