RELOVA JOURNAL

Blog/Published April 18, 2026 · Updated September 19, 2026

How to Move to Florence, Italy in 2026: Art Capital Expat Guide

By Anna Moore

Move to Florence in 2026: a May 2026 rental crackdown covers 100,000+ units, elective residency needs about EUR 31,000, and Oltrarno rent runs EUR 800–1,300.

Florence in 2026 is two cities layered on top of each other: a UNESCO historic center absorbing roughly 14 million visitors a year against a resident population of around 370,000, and a genuinely livable Italian city just outside the tourist perimeter where August still empties out and long lunches still happen. Which one you land in depends almost entirely on which neighborhood you choose and whether you time your search around the new rental rules.

The rental crackdown just got much bigger

Florence's historic-center short-term rental ban already covered 35,593 properties. On 26 May 2026, Mayor Sara Funaro pushed through what she called a national first: extending restrictions to 67,780 additional properties beyond the center, bringing the total affected stock past 100,000 residential units across neighborhoods including San Jacopino, Statuto, Le Cure, Campo di Marte, and parts of San Frediano. Existing short-term-rental operators are protected under a moratorium running through 31 May 2028, after which an authorization system may begin winding down the properties currently grandfathered in. If you're weighing a Florence property purchase as an income-producing Airbnb, this policy — not the yield spreadsheet — is now the binding constraint, and it has grown considerably wider than the original historic-center-only rule most guides still describe.

Elective residency, priced for real retirees

The elective residence visa — Italy's long-stay route for people with independent passive income who won't work locally — carries an official minimum around €31,000 a year for a single applicant, rising by roughly 20% per additional family member (so about €37,200 for a couple). Consular officers in practice look more favorably on applicants showing €35,000–40,000, plus meaningful liquid savings as a buffer — figures closer to €50,000 for singles and €80,000 for couples are commonly cited as what actually clears review comfortably, even though they exceed the bare legal minimum. This is not a working visa: any local employment or Italian-sourced business activity generally falls outside its scope, and consulates do check.

Digital nomads have a separate, higher bar

Italy's dedicated digital nomad visa sets its income threshold differently — roughly €28,000–30,000 annually, benchmarked at three times the healthcare-exemption threshold used elsewhere in Italian immigration law — and unlike elective residency, it explicitly permits remote work for a non-Italian employer or clients. The two routes get confused constantly because the numbers sit close together; the practical difference is what you're legally allowed to do once you're in the country, not just the income bar to enter.

What a real Oltrarno rent looks like

A one-bedroom in the Oltrarno, Florence's left-bank artisan quarter and the neighborhood most expats actually want, typically runs €800–1,300 a month, while Santa Croce — closer to the tourist core but with genuine residential streets a few blocks off the main routes — can push €900–1,500. Both are meaningfully cheaper than equivalent central Rome or Milan addresses, which is part of why Florence draws a disproportionate number of remote workers and retirees relative to its size. Expect a landlord to ask for a registered lease (contratto di locazione) for anything beyond a short-let, which is also the document your residency permit application will eventually want to see.

Living around the crowds, not despite them

Florence's tourist density is concentrated almost entirely around the Duomo, the Uffizi, and the Ponte Vecchio corridor; a ten-minute walk into the Oltrarno's side streets or up toward San Niccolò changes the character of the city completely, even in peak June and July. August is the genuine local exodus — many family-run trattorias close for two to three weeks, which is a real planning consideration for a first month rather than trivia. If overtourism is the thing that would sour you on Florence, the rental-restriction expansion is arguably good long-term news for residents: it's a direct attempt to slow the conversion of residential housing stock into tourist accommodation, which has been squeezing the local rental market for years.

Plan it on Relova: See Italy's visa options, tax rates, and cost of living → for a structured breakdown you can compare against other destinations.

See real salaries: What people actually earn in Italy →

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