Housing market imbalances can emerge not only in contexts of high property values, but also where relatively low real estate prices coexist with sustained rental demand. In such situations, rents may remain disproportionately high compared with property values, generating structural tensions in local housing systems. The rent-to-price ratio (RtPR) represents a useful indicator for capturing these dynamics, as it reflects the relationship between the rental and ownership markets. This paper investigates the RtPR analytical potential as a diagnostic tool for identifying socio-territorial housing imbalances and housing vulnerability. The analysis tests this interpretive potential in the city of Sassari, using OMI data on property values and rents, municipal records on rental subsidy applications, and socio-demographic variables. The results show a significant association between high RtPR values and the spatial concentration of demand for housing support. These findings suggest that the RtPR can function not only as an indicator of real estate performance, but also as a proxy for detecting spatial patterns of housing vulnerability that are not captured by property values alone. While the exploratory and cross-sectional nature of the analysis prevents causal interpretation, the paper shows how the RtPR may contribute to the construction of more sensitive diagnostic tools for housing policy. From this perspective, the final section outlines the Housing Imbalance Composite Index (HICI) as a possible future development for integrating market indicators with contextual measures of housing vulnerability and housing-stock use.
This study examines how mayors in Basilicata’s inner areas perceive factors shaping quality of life and local development. Using an exploratory pilot design combining the Capabilities Approach and Q methodology, it investigates the priorities and meanings local decision-makers assign to territorial well-being. Thirty-one mayors from peripheral and ultra-peripheral municipalities ranked 24 statements on quality of life. Factor analysis identified five viewpoints, emphasizing institutional and bureaucratic barriers, community resilience and social ties, inter-municipal cooperation, strategic planning, and essential services. Findings portray inner areas as complex systems where structural vulnerabilities coexist with social and territorial resources. The study highlights the territorial nature of capabilities and supports place-based policies aimed at strengthening services locally and cooperation, simplifying administrative processes, and expanding opportunities for younger generations.
This paper explores how the field of place-based appraisal and land economics is shifting from focusing mainly on market-based values of places with high human and activity densities to a broader and multi-faceted approach that explicitly considers human and territorial wellbeing. Traditional welfare assessment measures like GDP reflect economic growth, but neglect important environmental, cultural, and social factors that shape the quality of places. We propose a new framework for territorial appraisal that addresses spatial value in a more holistic way by breaking it down into economic, environmental, cultural, and social components, and then reconnecting them through an integrated recomposition approach. The paper uses new concepts, in particular circular cultural economies and ‘detouristification’, as regenerative strategies that rebalance sustainable growth, tourism, culture, and land use, showing how places can create new value by reimagining culture and using land in different ways, while strengthening transparent and participatory governance. Digital tools like geospatial models, digital twins, and visual dashboards support this process by improving transparency, participation, and learning across scales and over time. In this framework, wellbeing is not only a human goal, but also a condition for sustainable territorial development. The approach helps policymakers, planners, and appraisers move beyond the yardstick of GDP and support places where economy, culture, and society flourish sustainably, with appraisal guiding both evaluation and renewal.
The 2008 subprime mortgage crisis that deeply affected the entire international financial system highlighted the close interdependence between securities and real estate markets. This led to the need for evaluation methods for assets given as collateral for bank mortgages that were as objective and reliable as possible. Starting in 2008, the International Valuation Standards Council defined common criteria to be adopted internationally for real estate valuations. These criteria were adopted in Italy by the Italian Property Valuation Standard (Tecnoborsa, 2018). Despite the numerous market value estimation models developed by appraisal disciplines based on price comparison, the Italian Property Valuation Standard essentially considers only the so-called Market Comparison Approach (MCA) to be reliable. The analysis carried out has highlighted that the MCA contains some relevant methodological and theoretical errors. Moreover, it emerged that, especially for farmland, the MCA is substantially similar to other price comparison-based estimation models. The paper also suggests some modifications that can improve the accuracy and reliability of the MCA.
