Three thousand four hundred and ninety-nine euros in Rome, three hundred and ninety-one in Palermo. Same tax, same type of property, but a gap of almost three thousand euros a year and which depends only on the geographical location of the home. This is the photograph that emerges from the study on the IMU of the Department of Social Welfare, Economic, Fiscal and Social Security Policies, Southern Italy and Immigration of the UIL, directed by the confederal secretary Santo Biondo, released a few days before the advance payment due on Monday 16 June.
On second homes, the national average stops at 979 euros per year, a value that says little about a country where the gap between the most expensive capital and the most convenient one can multiply the bill by nine. Behind Rome – where people spend up to 3,499 a year – comes Milan, with 2,957 euros per year (1,479 as a deposit), then Venice at 2,335, Turin at 1,984 and Florence at 1,973. On the opposite side, after Palermo, the cities where the IMU costs the least are Cosenza (395 euros), Enna (460), Gorizia (484) and Caltanissetta (485).
The luxury homes and the upside-down geography
The segment changes, the ranking changes. On valuable main homes (the cadastral categories A/1, A/8 and A/9, the only first homes on which the tax remains due), Venice rises to first place with 3,001 euros per year, ahead of Rome (2,888) and Milan (2,777), compared to a national average of 932 euros. The most affordable become Agrigento (278 euros), followed by Caltanissetta and Cosenza, both at 385. One figure, among the municipal resolutions for 2026, stands out: the only municipality of Siena has foreseen a reduction in the rate on luxury main homes.
Why these differences
Inequalities, explains the union, are not the result of chance. The different levels of financial needs of local authorities and the choices of municipal administrations weigh heavily, as they find one of the main sources of financing in the IMU to guarantee essential services. Faced with increasingly tight budgets, the tendency is to keep the tax pressure high, often, observes the UIL, without citizens receiving visible investments in urban maintenance, mobility, safety or environmental protection in return. Then there is the issue of the land registry, which the European Commission itself has recalled in its recommendations in recent days: in many urban areas, valuable homes continue to enjoy historically low incomes, while properties in areas less valued by the market are burdened by relatively higher values. Obsolete estimates, now disconnected from real prices, which are reflected not only on the IMU but on all taxes linked to real estate.
The tax, recalls Biondo, does not only affect large fortunes, it also concerns workers and pensioners who have invested their life savings in bricks and mortar. Hence the request for a structural reform that strengthens progressivity, lightens the burden on income from work and pensions and combats tax evasion by broadening the tax base. Including an update of the cadastral values which, however – warns the union – will not translate into automatic increases in the levy. The methodology of the study crosses the average cadastral estimates of each province, revalued by 5% and multiplied by the coefficient, with the 2026 rates extrapolated from the resolutions published on the Department of Finance portal. Between first luxury homes and second homes, two almost mirror-like rankings, only one constant: those who own in Rome always pay, and pay a lot.
