What does a room in Pisa actually cost in 2026?
The €350 figure from Immobiliare.it Insights, reported by La Nazione on 30 April 2026, is an average asking price for a single room — half the market sits above it, half below.
For comparison, a national survey by the student union UDU with CGIL and SUNIA, based on 20,000 student responses and reported by Il Fatto Quotidiano in October 2023, found that the average Italian fuorisede (out-of-town student) pays €430/month for a single room including utilities and condo charges. That national number is not a Pisa number, but it tells you something the Pisa figure hides: the advertised rent is rarely the final rent.
Ask every landlord one question before anything else: is the price spese incluse (bills included) or spese escluse? Heating, electricity, water and spese condominiali (building/condo fees) are the difference between the two, and winter heating in an old Pisa building is not a small line. A shared double room costs less than a stanza singola, but Erasmus students who share tend to regret it by month three.
Why is Pisa so much cheaper than Florence?
📷 Jakub Zerdzicki / Pexels
Same region, same rail line, half the price. The reason is demand composition, not generosity.
Florence absorbs a permanent tourist rental market that competes directly with students for the same apartments; Pisa's tourism concentrates on Piazza dei Miracoli and largely leaves by dinner. The six-year trend proves the point: per La Nazione's April 2026 reporting on Immobiliare.it Insights data, Pisa rents grew 16% while Florence grew 46% over the same period.
City-wide asking rents in Pisa are also flattening. Immobiliare.it's market observatory for Pisa recorded €12.85/m²/month in January 2026, up just 0.63% from €12.77/m²/month in January 2025, after peaking at €13.34/m²/month in April 2025.
That is a very different picture from two years earlier, when La Nazione reported the city average at €12.33/m²/month in November 2024 — a jump of 8.92% year over year. Pisa had its price shock; it appears to have absorbed it.
Which Pisa neighbourhoods are cheapest for students?
📷 Efrem Efre / Pexels
Il Tirreno published a zone-by-zone breakdown in November 2024 using Immobiliare.it Centro Studi data, with the city averaging €12.08/m²/month at the time. Those relative gaps between zones are the durable part — they move slowly, even as the city average shifts.
The Center sat at €12.47/m²/month. Le Piagge, Cisanello, San Biagio, Pisanova and Pardi were close behind at €12.37/m²/month, which surprises people who assume "east of the centre" means cheap — Cisanello has the hospital and steady professional demand.
The cheaper side of the city was clear: San Marco, San Giusto and the airport area at €10.03/m²/month, the Central Station and Porta a Mare zone at €10.11/m²/month, and Porta Nuova, Ingegneria and Porta a Lucca at €10.72/m²/month.
That last cluster is the practical winner for most students: clearly below Center prices in that survey, and Porta a Lucca and Porta Nuova put you within a walk or a short bike ride of the university buildings. Pisa is flat and small — a bicycle erases most of the distance argument, which is exactly how the Center charges its premium.
What does a room near Sant'Anna cost?
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna is not a mass university, and its housing works differently from the University of Pisa's.
Sant'Anna's official housing page for PhD students lists 32 en-suite single rooms at €400/month at its Santa Croce in Fossabanda residence for the XLI PhD cycle, covering October 2025 to 22 September 2026 — bed, wardrobe, nightstand, bookshelf, chair and a private bathroom included. Rates are set per cycle, so check the current page before budgeting against that number.
The building itself is worth knowing about: Sant'Anna's own announcement describes Santa Croce in Fossabanda as a renovated 14th-century complex with 69 beds across 3,400 m² of covered space, inaugurated in December 2024.
The practical read for a private renter: €400 for an en-suite single with everything included is the benchmark the private market near the Sant'Anna area has to beat. If a landlord quotes you more than that for a room sharing one bathroom with three people, you now know what you are being asked to pay a premium for.
How much competition are you up against?
More than the city's size suggests. The University of Pisa's official Ateneo in cifre page reports 50,868 total enrolled students for academic year 2024/2025 (as of 31 December 2024) — 46,037 in degree courses, 1,041 PhD students, 745 master's students and 144 in specialization schools.
And the intake is growing. La Nazione reported 7,024 first-time-ever university enrollees for AY 2024/2025, up 5% year over year, and 11,803 total new career starts at Pisa across bachelor's, master's and transfers — more than 200 above the previous year's final figure. For the first time in years, women (5,914) outnumbered men (5,889) among new bachelor's and master's starters.
That is a very large student body for a compact city, and it means September is not a search window — it's a queue.
Start in July or early August, when outgoing students give notice and before the September wave lands. If you arrive in late September with no contract, you will pay the Center premium for the privilege of not sleeping in a hostel. Our comparison of the best apps to find rooms in Italy covers where the listings actually are.
What do you pay before the first month's rent?
Three things, and they stack.
The deposit. Italian law caps the deposito cauzionale (security deposit, sometimes called the caparra) at three months' rent, excluding utilities and condo charges, under Art. 11 of Legge 392/1978. The same article requires the deposit to be paid by traceable means with a written receipt, and any accrued interest belongs to you and must be returned with the deposit unless agreed otherwise. On a room at the €350 average, that is three times €350 you need liquid before you move in — never cash, never without a receipt.
Registration. The Agenzia delle Entrate requires residential leases to be registered within 30 days of signing (or of the start date, if earlier), with registration tax and stamp duty due at registration. It is mandatory for any contract running more than 30 cumulative days a year with the same tenant. An unregistered contract is the landlord's problem legally, but it becomes yours when you need proof of address for a permesso di soggiorno (residence permit) or residency.
Tax regime, which affects you indirectly. Under cedolare secca, the flat-rate rental tax, landlords pay 21% of annual rent on free-market contracts, dropping to 10% on canone concordato (agreed-rent) contracts in municipalities with housing shortages; opting in exempts the contract from registration tax and stamp duty. A landlord on cedolare secca has a clean reason to want a registered contract — use it as leverage if they hesitate.
Most students sign a contratto transitorio (short-term transitional lease) or a dedicated student contract. Both need registration. Both need your codice fiscale (Italian tax ID) — get it before you start viewings, not after; see our codice fiscale guide for foreigners if you don't have one yet.
How do you avoid overpaying in Pisa?
Do the €/m² arithmetic out loud. Add up what all the rooms in the flat produce per month, divide by the flat's floor area, and compare the result to Il Tirreno's figure for that zone. Rooms are priced on scarcity, not on floor area — but the zone number tells you when a price is aggressive rather than normal.
Never transfer money for a room you have not seen, in person or on a live video call, with the person who holds the keys. The classic Pisa scam is a Center apartment priced well under the zone average, advertised by a "landlord currently abroad" who wants a transfer to hold it. There is no such room.
Rooms in Pisa are listed across Facebook groups, agency portals and dedicated apps. One of them is Coinquilino (coinquilino.app), a free app for finding rooms and roommates in Italy — full disclosure: Coinquilino is our app, so treat that as a starting point, not a reason to work one channel only. Post your own "cerco stanza" notice as well as answering ads; landlords in Pisa search too.
Finally, screen the flatmates as seriously as the flat. A cheap room with the wrong three flatmates costs more than a slightly pricier one with the right ones — our list of roommate red flags to spot before you sign exists because that lesson is usually learned in November.
Frequently asked questions
Is €350 a month realistic for a room in Pisa in 2026?
Yes, as an average. Per La Nazione's April 2026 reporting on Immobiliare.it Insights data, €350/month is the single-room average for Pisa. Expect the cheaper zones identified by Il Tirreno — San Marco/San Giusto, the station area, Porta a Lucca — to sit near or below it, and Center rooms to sit above.
Are bills included in Pisa room prices?
Usually not. Always ask whether the price is spese incluse or spese escluse. The UDU/CGIL/SUNIA survey reported by Il Fatto Quotidiano in 2023 found the national average single-room cost including utilities and condo charges was €430/month — the gap between advertised and all-in rent is real everywhere in Italy, Pisa included.
How much deposit can a Pisa landlord legally ask for?
A maximum of three months' rent, excluding utilities and condo charges, under Art. 11 of Legge 392/1978. It must be paid traceably with a written receipt, and the interest it accrues belongs to you and is returned with the deposit unless you agreed otherwise. Anyone asking for four or five months is outside the law.
Do I need a codice fiscale before I can rent in Pisa?
Yes. The codice fiscale is required to register the lease with the Agenzia delle Entrate, and the lease must be registered within 30 days of signing. Get it before viewings — a landlord with three candidates will pick the one who can sign this week.
Is it cheaper to live in Pisa and commute, or to study in Florence?
On rent, Pisa wins decisively: €350 versus €625 for a single room per that same April 2026 La Nazione report. The difference between those two cited averages, €275 a month, is far more than any regional train pass costs over a year — the calculation only changes if your degree, not your budget, is in Florence.
When should I start looking for a room in Pisa?
July to early August. With 50,868 students enrolled at the University of Pisa in AY 2024/2025 per the university's own figures, and first-time enrolments up 5% that year, September searching means competing with the whole intake at once. Earlier searching buys you the cheap zones; late searching buys you the Center at Center prices.
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This article was produced with the help of AI tools and reviewed by the Coinquilino editorial team.
