Housing in Trastevere

Type of buildings

The stock is almost entirely historic: reworked medieval and Renaissance houses, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century buildings, the odd noble palazzo divided into flats. Along viale di Trastevere and around Porta Portese there are instead late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century blocks, taller and more regular, plus some early-1900s public housing towards San Francesco a Ripa.

In practice: narrow stairs, lifts rare, small flats with irregular rooms, ground floors and basements prone to damp because of the river, windows onto noisy lanes. Top floors with a terrace are the most sought after and the most expensive.

The rental market

Trastevere is one of the areas of Rome with the most homes used as short-term tourist lets, which takes housing away from the residential market and pushes rents up. Those looking for a long lease find it more easily in the eastern part of the rione (Santa Cecilia, via Anicia, Porta Portese) or just outside it, in Monteverde Vecchio beyond the Gianicolo. Rooms in shared flats are in demand from foreign students and turnover is high, tied to university semesters.