When foreigners invade

Could US students help solve Florence’s tourist problem?

The result has been massive rent increases. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, rents have gone up by 50% in Florence, according to data from Italian real estate site Idealista. “The rental market is in crisis,” said Vicenzo De Tommaso, head of Idealista’s research department, in a release on the company’s website. Finding affordable housing, he says, “has become almost impossible.”