You found the room. The landlord likes you. Then comes the sentence that ends the conversation: "Serve un garante italiano." You need an Italian guarantor — a parent with an Italian payslip, ideally in the same region. If your parents live in Lyon or Lima, you don't have one and you never will.
You are also having this conversation in a queue: INDIRE's Erasmus+ 2025 report counts more than 40,000 foreign students choosing Italy between June 2023 and July 2025, second in Europe only to Spain. Here is what works instead of a garante, what each option costs, and which sentences to say back.
Do I need a guarantor to rent in Italy?
Legally, no. There is no article of Italian law that makes a garante a condition of a valid lease. If you search for one you will not find it, because it does not exist — a guarantee is a private contract clause the parties agree on, like a pet clause or a repainting clause.
What the law does require is different and much smaller. According to BeRoomie's international-student renting checklist (accessed 2026), a codice fiscale — the Italian tax code, free from the Agenzia delle Entrate or an Italian consulate — is a prerequisite to sign any Italian rental contract. That is the real gatekeeping document, not your family's income.
So when a landlord says "you need a guarantor," they are stating a preference with the grammar of a rule. The correct answer is not "sorry, I don't have one." It is "I can't offer a garante — I can offer X instead." The rest of this article is X.
Why does every landlord ask for an Italian garante?
📷 Mikhail Nilov / Pexels
Because they can. Italy is structurally short of student beds, and scarcity lets the person with the keys set the terms. Il Sole 24 Ore reported in April 2023 that only around 70,000 structured student beds exist against roughly 450,000 to 660,000 fuori sede students (students studying away from their home town) — coverage of about 7 to 10.5%, against a European benchmark near 20%.
A second national count is bleaker. Skuola.net reported in May 2023 that just 36,478 subsidized university housing places existed against potential demand from about 764,000 students — under 5% coverage, with entire regions such as Molise at zero. The government's PNRR plan targets 60,000 additional subsidized beds by 30 June 2026, per the same Skuola.net reporting, which tells you the shortage is officially acknowledged and still unresolved.
The second reason is fear of non-payment, and it is not imaginary. A joint 2023 statement by the CGIL union, the UDU student union and the SUNIA tenants' union found 29% of Italian university students reported severe difficulty paying rent and utilities. The garante is the landlord's crude insurance policy against that number.
What can you offer instead of a garante?
📷 Markus Spiske / Pexels
Think of it as a menu, not a wall. Landlords want reduced risk; a guarantor is only one way to deliver it, and usually the least convenient one for them.
- A fideiussione bancaria or assicurativa — a bank or insurance guarantee. A regulated institution promises the money instead of your dad. This is the strongest substitute and the one that ends most arguments.
- The full legal deposit (cauzione), offered up front and in writing. Three months' rent is the maximum under Legge 392/1978, art. 11, and it must accrue legal interest paid to you yearly — so offering the legal maximum is generous, not weak.
- Advance rent, three to six months paid at signature. Note this is a different thing from the cauzione and sits outside that cap; if you agree to it, write it into the contract as prepaid rent with the months named.
- Proof of funds: a bank statement, a scholarship award letter, an Erasmus+ grant confirmation, a work contract. Translated, not just screenshotted.
- A foreign guarantor with documents in order — see below.
Offer two of these in one message, not five. A landlord reading a list of five feels negotiated at; two reads as a serious tenant who did their homework.
How much does a fideiussione bancaria actually cost?
Less than most students assume. According to idealista/news in January 2024, a bank guarantee for a rental typically costs a fixed fee of around €50 plus an annual premium of 2 to 3% of the yearly rent, paid by the tenant — their worked example is about €170 a year on a rent of €6,000 a year.
Weigh that against what you are competing for. Sky TG24 reported in August 2026 (using Immobiliare.it Insights data) that the average single room costs €704 a month in Milan and €479 in Turin. A few hundred euros a year to become the applicant who cannot be refused on paperwork is, in that market, cheap.
The catch is access. Banks usually want collateral — often a blocked deposit or an account relationship — which is awkward for someone who arrived in September. Two workarounds: ask about a fideiussione assicurativa from an insurer, which is often lighter on collateral, and ask your own home-country bank whether its Italian correspondent can issue one. Start this before you need it, not the night the landlord asks.
Can my parents abroad be my guarantor?
Nothing in Italian law bans a foreign guarantor. The resistance is practical: a landlord imagining a court case against a household in another country is imagining lawyers, translations and years, and they would rather just pick the applicant from Bergamo.
You beat that objection with paperwork, not persuasion. Get your guarantor an Italian codice fiscale — it is free and obtainable through an Italian consulate abroad, and a guarantor without one looks unenforceable on the page (our step-by-step guide covers the process). Then supply translated income proof: employment contract, recent payslips, or the home-country tax return.
Present it as a package with an alternative attached: "My guarantor is my mother, here is her codice fiscale and income documentation — and if you prefer an Italian institution, I can arrange a fideiussione bancaria instead." You have now made the foreign-guarantor problem the landlord's choice rather than your defect.
Which contract type makes a guarantor less likely?
Ask for the contratto per studenti universitari — the dedicated student lease. Under Legge 431/1998, art. 5 and the ministerial decree of 30 December 2002, it runs 6 to 36 months and lets the landlord tax the rent at a reduced 10% flat rate (cedolare secca) instead of ordinary income tax. Landlords who take that tax break are frequently softer on guarantees, because the state already improved their return.
The other student-relevant format is the contratto transitorio, a short-term lease for temporary needs, which suits a single Erasmus semester. Whichever you sign, insist on registrazione del contratto — registration with the Agenzia delle Entrate. An unregistered contract leaves you with no protection, no proof of residence, and no way to claim your deposit back.
One number to keep expectations honest: public help for renters is thin. Studenti.it reported in June 2025 that the rent bonus for out-of-town students with a family ISEE under €20,000 tops out at €279.21 — and it depends on having an Italian ISEE, which most Erasmus and international students do not have. Nobody is subsidising your negotiation. The contract type is the leverage.
What if no landlord will budge?
Then stop applying for whole apartments and apply for rooms. In a shared flat you are often joining an existing lease or signing a sublet with the tenants rather than the owner, and the guarantor question frequently disappears entirely — the risk is spread across the flatmates.
Rooms are also where the price relief is. Sky TG24's August 2026 figures put single rooms at €627 in Florence, €615 in Rome (up 7% year-on-year), €585 in Bologna and €479 in Turin, against €704 in Milan. A separate index published by idealista/news in January 2026, using HousingAnywhere data for Q4 2025, saw Milan at €664 and Bologna at €655, with national single-room rents down about 3.1% year-on-year while Rome rose 4.8%. Different methods, same message: your city choice moves your budget more than any guarantee you offer.
Search where rooms are listed by people rather than agencies — Coinquilino (coinquilino.app), a free app for finding rooms and roommates in Italy, sits in that category alongside several others (full disclosure: Coinquilino is our app). Then guard the money: the CGIL/UDU/SUNIA statement from 2023 found 46% of students had run into fraudulent listings, and "no guarantor needed, just wire the deposit today" is exactly what a scammer says to someone refused five times. Our rental red flags guide covers the tells.
FAQ
Is a guarantor legally required to rent in Italy?
No. There is no Italian statute making a garante a condition of a valid lease; it is a contract clause landlords request, which means it can be replaced by a bank guarantee, a deposit, or advance rent. What the law does demand before signing is a codice fiscale, per BeRoomie's international-student checklist.
Can a landlord ask for six months' deposit if I have no guarantor?
Not as a deposit. Legge 392/1978, art. 11 caps the cauzione at three months' rent and requires the landlord to pay you legal interest on it yearly. A landlord can separately ask for rent paid in advance, which is a different arrangement — if you accept it, name the prepaid months explicitly in the contract.
Do I need a permesso di soggiorno before I can sign a lease?
Non-EU students obtain the permesso di soggiorno (residence permit) after arriving, and processing takes weeks, so many sign with the post-office receipt in hand. Ask the landlord to accept the receipt plus your codice fiscale and passport. EU students do not need a permesso at all.
Is a fideiussione bancaria worth it for one Erasmus semester?
Often not. The idealista/news figures from January 2024 — around €50 fixed plus 2 to 3% of annual rent — scale with the contract, so for a short contratto transitorio or a single room in a shared flat, offering the full legal deposit plus proof of your grant usually does the same job for free.
Can I get an Italian rent bonus to strengthen my application?
Almost certainly not as an international student. Studenti.it reported in June 2025 that the fuori sede rent bonus maxes out at €279.21 and requires a family ISEE below €20,000 — an Italian income assessment most Erasmus and non-resident students cannot produce. Treat any public aid as a bonus, never as part of your negotiation.
What should I actually write in my first message to a landlord?
Three lines: who you are and your university, how long you need the room, and your guarantee package. For example — "I don't have an Italian garante; I can pay the full three-month deposit plus a fideiussione bancaria, and I have my codice fiscale." Ending the guarantor question in your first message is what separates you from the twenty applicants who let the landlord raise it.
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This article was produced with the help of AI tools and reviewed by the Coinquilino editorial team.
