State of Coliving in Italy

How big is the Italy coliving market?

Milan and Rome are the core Italian coliving hubs. Italy's coliving story is anchored by a single dominant operator (Joivy, the rebranded DoveVivo) that is now Europe's largest coliving company by rental beds, and a major hospitality-coliving hybrid play (The Social Hub) that is accelerating pipeline into Italian cities.

Joivy operates approximately 12,000 rental beds across 40 destinations after the Chez Nestor acquisition and rebrand from DoveVivo in November 2023. Founded in Milan in 2007, DoveVivo pre-dated most of the European coliving founding cohort, giving Joivy substantial market maturity. The Joivy group (post-rebrand) manages approximately 4,000 assets across 50 European cities in 6 countries, with a group value of approximately €2 billion and turnover of €110 million.

The consolidation timeline that produced Joivy: DoveVivo merged with ALTIDO in February 2022, acquired Chez Nestor (France, ~1,300 rooms), and rebranded to Joivy in November 2023. Starwood Capital took a 22% stake for €50 million. This is the European coliving consolidation model executed at scale from Milan.

The Social Hub (Dutch origin, formerly The Student Hotel) has an active Italian pipeline. Rome San Lorenzo opened March 2025 (~392-396 rooms, €114M investment). Florence San Jacopino opened February 2025 (~550 rooms, €150M). €145M UniCredit impact financing plus €54M SACE green guarantee support approximately 1,000 new rooms across Italy. This is the hospitality-coliving hybrid model at Italian scale.

Habyt entered the Italian market through the Roomie (Milan) acquisition in March 2022, giving it a Milan base to expand from.

A critical clarifying note: there is no 'DoveVivo-Habyt merger.' This is a common error in secondary coverage. DoveVivo became Joivy in November 2023. Habyt is a separate company that merged with Common (US) in January 2023. Do not conflate the two.

Beyond the top-3 institutional operators, Italy has a growing cohort of mid-scale coliving brands and boutique operators. Milan, Rome, Turin, Bologna, and Florence each have local coliving supply. Naples and Palermo have thinner supply. University-city markets (Padua, Pavia, Trento) have student-housing crossover.

Italy's coliving market is smaller by operational bed count than Germany or the Netherlands but hosts Europe's largest single coliving operator by scale. That combination , concentrated market leadership with a growing hospitality-hybrid pipeline , makes Italy structurally different from any other European coliving market.

How is coliving regulated in Italy?

Coliving is regulated at the regional level in Italy. There is no unified national coliving framework; each region (Lombardy, Lazio, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Piedmont) has distinct rules on multi-tenant residential letting.

Student-housing crossover is strong. Many Italian coliving operators serve both young-professional and postgraduate-student segments; the regulatory overlap between residenze universitarie and coliving means operator models often blend both.

Contratto di locazione (rental contract) types matter. Long-stay coliving typically uses 'transitorio' or 'transitorio per studenti' contract structures that fit coliving's shorter-lease format. This distinction is critical for tax treatment.

Regional zoning for hospitality-coliving hybrids (like The Social Hub's Rome and Florence properties) requires municipal planning approvals that treat these as mixed-use rather than pure residential.

IMU (Imposta Municipale Unica) property tax varies by municipality. Coliving PropCo economics depend on IMU rates.

Cedolare secca flat-tax option (21% or 10% depending on contract type) is a favorable option for some Italian coliving landlord structures.

Fire safety compliance (Certificato di Prevenzione Incendi) for multi-tenant residential buildings is enforced by regional Vigili del Fuoco departments.

Universities set their own accreditation standards for residenze universitarie, some of which are used by coliving operators for student-cohort inventory.

The 'Lavoratore da Remoto' (Remote Worker) digital nomad visa introduced in 2024 provides income-threshold pathways for foreign remote workers to reside in Italy , indirectly supporting coliving demand.

Forfettario (5% or 15% flat tax for freelancers below revenue caps) is one of Europe's most competitive freelancer tax regimes and a specific pull factor for Italy-based digital nomads.

Where can I find coliving data for Italy?

• UniCredit , The Social Hub financing

• CoStar , Italy coliving coverage

• JLL Italy , Milan flex-living research

• Scenari Immobiliari , Italy living-sector market analysis

• Cushman & Wakefield Italy , Milan and Rome coliving coverage

What makes Italy coliving distinctive?

Home turf of Europe's biggest coliving operator and the hospitality-coliving hybrid archetype. Italy hosts Joivy (rebranded from DoveVivo, ~12,000 rental beds, group value ~€2B, present in 13 Italian cities, expanded across 6 European countries), which is by any measure the largest single coliving operator in Europe. It also hosts The Social Hub's most ambitious Italian pipeline (Rome San Lorenzo €114M, Florence San Jacopino €150M, ~1,000 new rooms with UniCredit + SACE financing). Those two operators, plus Habyt via Roomie, define institutional Italian coliving. The market has three unusual features that separate it from other European coliving markets. First, regional-level regulation with strong reliance on transitorio contract types produces a legal framework better suited to coliving's medium-lease format than most European peers. Second, the hospitality-coliving hybrid (TSH's model) is more institutionally advanced in Italy than anywhere else in Europe , the €145M UniCredit financing plus €54M SACE green guarantee for TSH's Italian expansion is the largest coliving-hospitality financing anywhere. Third, the forfettario tax regime, in combination with the 2024 Lavoratore da Remoto visa, positions Italy as one of Europe's most competitive digital-nomad destinations even without matching Portugal's or Spain's marketing profile. What Italy still lacks: fragmented mid-market operator competition (the market is highly concentrated on Joivy), regional expansion beyond Milan and Rome at institutional scale, and the visibility that Spain and the UK now have with capital allocators. The next phase of Italian coliving will depend on whether TSH's Italian pipeline delivers, whether Joivy consolidates further at institutional scale, and whether the Naples/Palermo/Bari southern-Italian markets attract institutional operator attention. For now, Italy is Europe's most operator-concentrated coliving market and its most institutionally-financed hospitality-coliving pipeline.

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