This chapter examines how Campania can adapt its land use and spatial planning frameworks to address demographic challenges, particularly youth outmigration, ageing, and population decline in rural inland areas. It analyses current land use patterns and housing market dynamics, with a pattern of new construction despite shrinking and high housing vacancy rates. The chapter also evaluates strides Campania has made in promoting more efficient land use as well as the steps still needed. Policy recommendations focus on aligning spatial planning with population projections, supporting smart densification through urban regeneration and land adjustment, aligning housing supply and demand, and strengthening co-operation across municipalities. These actions can support Campania in enhancing polycentric development, protecting natural areas, and promoting more sustainable, inclusive territorial development.
Preparing for Demographic Change in Campania, Italy
Abstract
Campania is a region in southern Italy with a highly diverse territorial and demographic profile. It contains both densely populated coastal and urban zones with Naples at the epicentre of a dense urban agglomeration, as well as sparsely populated rural inland areas (Figure 3.1). While the population density in some neighbourhoods exceeds 34 000 people per square kilometre in the coastal municipality of Naples (Municipality of Naples[1]), the vast majority of Campania’s 550 municipalities have fewer than 1 000 residents per km2 (Figure 3.2). An estimated three-fourths of the region’s total population live in the Naples-Caserta-Salerno conurbation. Meanwhile, more than half of the populations and surface area of the Salerno and Avellino provinces (TL3 regions1), and over half the surface area in the province of Benevento, are spread out over rural inland mountainous terrain. The region’s geography, marked by its extensive coastline and the Apennine Mountain range, plays a key role in shaping its economy, including by attracting 4.6% of Italy’s tourists in 2023.
Main land cover type (2021)
Note: Data is from 2020 or latest available.
Source: OECD Local data portal
Source: OECD local data portal
Naples is the economic and demographic engine of Campania, and one of the most densely populated cities in Europe. With nearly 3 million residents in the Metropolitan city of Naples spread across 1 171 km2 – more than half the region’s total population, but less than 10% of its surface area – this dense agglomeration creates significant economic advantages, making Naples a hub for firms, services, logistics, and cultural institutions, and continuing to attract talent from across the region. However, the city also faces substantial challenges, including infrastructure bottlenecks, traffic congestion, environmental pressures, and high housing demand. Despite ongoing investment in public transport, housing renewal, and urban regeneration – such as the creation of Metro line 6 and the transformation of an abandoned factory into a tech hub training students for placement in high-skill jobs (see Chapter 2) – Naples still struggles with overcrowding, limited availability of affordable housing, and under-capacity in essential services. Addressing these issues through integrated spatial planning is crucial not only for the wellbeing of Naples’s residents, but also for the wider territorial balance and economic resilience of Campania as a whole.
Despite only a modest overall population decline of 1.9% since 2000, demographic trends are highly uneven between the region’s urban/coastal and rural/inland territories. Municipalities in the inland provinces of Avellino, Benevento, and more inland parts of Salerno are projected to lose between 10% and 20% of their population between 2020 and 2030, while many municipalities in and around Naples are projected to remain stable or grow. Campania also experiences persistent outmigration of young people, with a net loss of between 7 000 to 10 000 residents aged 15-29 per year between 2008 and 2020 leaving to other regions in Italy.
Historically, regional territorial development has contributed to reinforcing these spatial inequalities between urban and rural territories related to depopulation, poor quality of services, and the reduction of attractiveness in the latter. However, this divide also presents opportunities to advocate for more integrated land use planning, particularly in fostering territorial cohesion, promoting compact, sustainable urban regeneration both in Naples and in small service centres, and diffusing the benefits of intense tourism throughout the region.
Land development has broadly increased despite persistent depopulation in many parts of the region between 2010-2021: for example, built-up surface area (BUA) increased 14.5% in the province of Benevento, while the population declined by 6.8% (Figure 3.3). This may be a sign that demographic trends are not being sufficiently incorporated into relevant spatial plans. Increased BUA combined with population decline (see Chapter 2) and municipal fragmentation (see Chapter 4) indicates sprawl and inefficient land use with adverse consequences on the economy, environment, infrastructure, and quality of life. Sprawl can consume valuable agricultural or natural land and require expansion of infrastructure, leading to more costly maintenance of roads, utilities, and public spaces that are underused due to declining demand and a lack of economy of scale and a declining revenue base to pay for it (OECD, 2022[2]). Spread-out development can also contribute to social fragmentation, isolation, and a diminished sense of community (Power, 2001[3]).
Population change vs. BUA change (%, 2010-2020)
Note: Data is sorted in order of largest discrepancy between change in BUA and population loss.
Source: OECD Local Municipal Database; Global Human Settlement Layer supported by European Commission, Joint Research Centre and Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy.
Environmentally, unstructured expansion increases the carbon footprint due to greater distances between homes and amenities, raising energy use while also removing green spaces crucial for sustainability (Jia et al., 2024[4]) (Wang and Zhu, 2024[5]). Many parts of Campania’s depopulating areas are also vulnerable to environmental risks such as soil erosion, landslides, floods, and forest fires, placing growing pressure on both communities and ecosystems. At the same time, continued expansion of built-up areas along the region’s urbanised coastline, largely driven by tourism demand (Figure 3.4), risks further degrading natural habitats, intensifying urban heat island effects, and exposing people and infrastructure to heightened flood and coastal risks. These challenges are compounded by Campania’s broader existing vulnerability to seismic and hydrogeological hazards, which threaten both human safety and sustainable territorial development. While the region has made significant efforts to promote more efficient and sustainable land use that seek to addressing these issues, inefficient or unsustainable land use persists in many areas.
Number of tourist accommodations per 1 000 dwellings by municipality (2021)
Source: OECD local data portal
Increased tourism has intensified housing market pressures, with rent prices increasing most in heavily touristic areas around Naples and along the region’s coastline. This trend mirrors broader EU challenges recognised in the Cohesion policy mid-term review, which has proposed several measures to address affordable housing concerns in response to a 48% rise in EU house prices since 2015, recognising that high housing costs also create challenges for regional attractiveness and competitiveness, as companies in affected areas struggle to attract workers due to unaffordable living costs. This trend is particularly concerning in Campania, running parallel to high vacancy rates.
This chapter examines the land use patterns and spatial planning framework of Campania, offering policy recommendations to improve resilience against demographic decline. The discussion begins with an overview of land use trends, focusing on the region’s settlement and development patterns. The chapter then explores housing market trends, with a particular focus on the prevalence of vacancies and its impact on land use in the region. Campania’s spatial planning framework and associated instruments are also analysed. Finally, recommendations are provided for aligning spatial planning with demographic realities to create a more economically and environmentally sustainable development model.
Current land use trends in the Campania region show a direction towards more sustainable development in terms of the environment, land consumption, infrastructure use, and service delivery. However, there are still significant challenges to address, namely new and low-density development in declining areas that strains infrastructure and consumes land, as well as underused building stock in more urbanised areas.
Built-up area has increased and population has declined especially in rural areas
Built-up area (BUA) increased and population declined in all provinces of the region except in Caserta, where population remained virtually the same (Figure 3.3). The three provinces that have seen the highest population decrease are also the three provinces that have seen the greatest percentage increase in built up area. These three provinces rank in the 82nd percentile of EU TL3 regions in terms of built-up surface area growth despite losing population (Figure 3.5).
Change in built-up surface area and population (OECD TL3, 2010-2020, %)
Note: The red dotted lines indicate the averages of EU countries.
Source: OECD Local Municipal Database; Global Human Settlement Layer supported by European Commission, Joint Research Centre and Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy.
The urban/rural and coastal/inland divides in population trends and land use are stark at the municipal level as well. Efforts by the regional government aiming to promote urban regeneration and protect the environment by limiting new land consumption (see section on recent planning reforms below) appear to have been effective in and around the “Neapolitan belt”, which constitutes the heavily urbanised part of the region in and around Naples, where there are pockets of either population growth or comparatively slight decline alongside minimal increases in BUA (Figure 3.6). By contrast many municipalities located in the rural inland areas of the region, especially those farthest from Naples, have seen substantial increases in BUA despite broad population stagnation or decline. Large increases in BUA in such rural areas and in heavily depopulating municipalities suggests sprawling and scattered low-density development.
Change in built-up surface area (2010-2020) and population (2011-2021) (OECD TL3, %)
Note: Darker red indicates a higher BUA increase as well as a higher population decrease. Darker blue indicates a lower BUA increase as well as a population increase.
Source: OECD Local Municipal Database; Global Human Settlement Layer supported by European Commission, Joint Research Centre and Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy.
While land use appears to have been fairly efficient in more urbanised areas, higher BUA increases in the most rural and depopulating provinces suggests that local adoption of these approaches is lagging. This trend suggests that efforts by the region to promote urban regeneration and limit land consumption are not being adopted or implemented at a significant rate in smaller, rural municipalities. This may be due to limited technical or administrative capacity in rural municipalities to update local plans and promote urban regeneration, as well as insufficient incentives for inter-municipal co-ordination of planning. Instead, municipalities may compete for new development despite steady depopulation, leading to a “race to the bottom” between neighbouring municipalities with similar characteristics in hopes of attracting or retaining population short-term. Some development in these inner areas can improve their capacity for production and connectivity with urban centres. However, such development should be co-ordinated between the region, provinces, and neighbouring municipalities to ensure that development is strategically aligned with depopulation trends.
Built-up volume, e.g. the three-dimensional space occupied by buildings, decreased in every province over the same period (Figure 3.7), indicating that Campania’s built environment has become less dense across all provinces. While it is intuitive that sprawled development would be low height and low density, this trend is particularly concerning in a context of population decline.
BUA change vs. BUA height change (%, 2010-2020)
Source: OECD Local Municipal Database; Global Human Settlement Layer supported by European Commission, Joint Research Centre and Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy.
Low-density development patterns may be contributing to higher transport emissions
Low-density developments scattered beyond urbanised areas contributes to CO2 emissions and negatively impacts the environment, as it creates longer commuting distances, reliance on private automobiles, and excessive land use (Song and Zenou, 2006[6]) (Brandt, 2014[7]). Campania is promoting environmentally sustainable development in several ways, including through efforts to “green” its fleet of school buses, improve public transport access in peri-urban areas around Naples (see Chapter 5), and improve road connectivity between rural areas and service hubs. These initiatives demonstrate how it is investing in areas outside the urban core of Naples to both increase attractiveness and promote environmental sustainability across Campania.
Road transport-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita in Campania provinces are lower than many TL3 regions in Italy and Europe (Figure 3.8). However, the most sparsely populated provinces – Avellino and Benevento – have the highest GHG emissions per capita in the region. Reliance on private cars is common, as rural residents are 12% more likely to own a car and 20-30% more likely to use them for daily needs (OECD, 2022[2]) (Tikoudis et al., 2024[8]). Continued low-density development will lead to greater reliance on emitting private vehicles in lieu of public transport options that are most efficient when operating in denser areas. In addition, initiatives aimed at renewable energy development may face logistical challenges due to remote and scattered settlements.
Road transport sector GHG emissions per capita and population density (%, EU TL3 regions, 2022)
Note: The red dotted lines indicate the averages of EU TL3 regions.
Source: OECD Local Municipal Database; Global Human Settlement Layer supported by European Commission, Joint Research Centre and Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy.
The spatial disparities between the densely populated and economically dynamic coast and the more remote inland areas of Campania extends to the housing market and housing stock. Approximately three-fourths of the region’s population reside in the Naples-Caserta-Salerno conurbation, where housing pressures are particularly acute due to high demand, limited availability, and significant affordability challenges. This challenge follows broader housing affordability concerns across the EU, where rapidly rising housing prices have prompted EU-level policy action to address the crisis (Box 3.1). While popular urban and coastal areas have seen an increase in property prices over the past ten years, driven by growing demand from local residents, tourists and external investors, property prices have stagnated or declined in many rural and inland areas due to population decline and outmigration.
Between 2015 and 2023, house prices in the EU rose on average by 48% (Commission, 2024[9]). This affordability crisis has threatened to relocate vulnerable groups away from opportunity-rich areas, weaken communities and local economies and undermine regional competitiveness. Recognising these challenges, the European Commission has established housing as a key priority area and a fundamental right within a modernised Cohesion policy framework.
EU Cohesion policy and the mid-term review
Cohesion Policy stands as the EU’s principal investment instrument, commanding nearly one-third of the EU budget (EUR 392 billion) for the 2021-2027 programming period. Through its various funding mechanisms, it drives targeted investments to strengthen economic, social and territorial cohesion across Member States. The current programming period has unfolded against a backdrop of unprecedented challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, which have fundamentally reshaped the EU's strategic priorities. The mid-term review aims to propose amendments to Cohesion policy legislations that integrate the EU's emerging priorities into existing Cohesion programmes and accelerate investment delivery through simplification measures.
Affordable housing proposals in the mid-term review
The mid-term review aims to modernise Cohesion policy by addressing the growing housing affordability crisis across Europe, in alignment with the proposed European Affordable Housing Plan and the recommendations of the newly established European Parliament's Special Committee on the Housing Crisis.
It proposes to double Cohesion policy's support for affordable housing through legislative amendments that widen possibilities for Member States to reprogramme their 2021-2027 allocations toward housing investments. To provide adequate incentives, investments reallocated to affordable housing will benefit from enhanced pre-financing of 30% in 2026 and an increased EU co-financing rate of 100%.
Additionally, a model financial instrument has been prepared jointly with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for combining Cohesion policy funding with resources from the EIB and other financial institutions. This approach aims to increase the impact of Cohesion policy resources on affordable housing supply by leveraging private and concessional financing.
The mid-term review strongly encourages Member States to 1) double their allocated funding for affordable housing, 2) utilise financial instruments effectively, 3) accelerate and streamline permitting and planning processes at the local level and 4) support housing projects consistent with the New European Bauhaus initiative.
Source: (European Commission, 2025[10]).
New development is occurring in many rural and shrinking municipalities despite the exodus of younger generations in search of economic opportunities, while ageing housing stock in these municipalities is not being rehabilitated and is often left vacant or abandoned. This is likely because new housing construction on greenfield sites generates profits from resulting land value uplifts on these sites. It may also appear to be cheaper or more desirable to build new housing than to refurbish ageing or poor-quality housing but they undermine Campania’s ability to adapt to demographic change.
As of 2021, there are 2 873 860 housing units in Campania, an increase of 17.5% from 2011, or 429 376 units. Nearly half of all housing stock in the region is in the Metropolitan City of Naples (1 377 278 units). By province, the increase of housing stock 2011-2021 ranges from 22 020 new units built in Benevento (a 15% increase within the province) to 206 743 new units built in Naples (a 17% increase) (Figure 3.9). The greatest increase in the share of housing stock by province was in Salerno at 20%, with 102 755 new units built. Development in the heavily shrinking and rural provinces of Avellino and Benevento (Figure 3.6) is concerning especially in the context of their particularly high vacancy rates (Figure 3.11).
Increase in the share of housing stock by province (%, 2011-2021)
Source: OECD local data portal.
Housing prices have increased along the coast and declined in depopulating areas
Rent prices have increased the most in municipalities along the coast in Naples and Caserta provinces 2016-2024 – including a 135% increase in Castel Volturno municipality (Caserta) (Figure 3.10). By contrast, rent prices in inland municipalities have decreased over the same period, especially in the rural land-locked provinces of Avellino and Benevento. These trends are expected to continue, with property prices increasing in popular urban and coastal areas due to sustained housing and tourism demand, and remaining stable or declining further in rural and inland areas with declining populations.
Change in rent price per m2 (2016-2024, EUR)
Source: Source: OECD Local data portal
Declining property prices translates to decreased property tax revenue for small and shrinking municipalities facing already low administrative and budget capacity, which may incentivise such municipalities to allow new development despite depopulation. However, certain designs of property tax regimes can be an effective tool for reducing urban sprawl and promoting denser development, with different tax regimes able to effectively influence construction activity in terms of location, the size of housing units and density patterns. When combined with other tax tools, property tax reforms such as land value tax, split-rate tax, and three-rate property tax have the potential to discourage land speculation in declining rural areas and support more strategic, compact development by incentivising the reuse of existing land and infrastructure rather than outward expansion (Taranu and Verbeeck, 2022[11]). Chapter 4 discusses local property taxes in more detail.
Demand for affordable housing in the region is also evidenced by the 31 717 applications received for public residential housing in 2022, representing significant housing pressure (Region of Campania[12]). Most applications are for municipalities in the Neapolitan belt. The Metropolitan City of Naples received almost 70% of applications, followed by the provinces of Salerno with approximately 18%, Caserta with just under 6%, Avellino just under 5% and Benevento just under 2% (Region of Campania, 2022[13]). Ten of the largest municipalities in the region, all within the Neapolitan belt, are connected to 50.8% of the applications; applications for the municipality of Naples were 8 747, or 27.6% of the total. In addition, the number of applicants for rent support measures nearly doubled between the last two calls for applications, from approximately 38 000 applications in 2021 to 72 698 in 2022 (Region of Campania, 2021[14]) (Region of Campania, 2022[15]). To address this demand, Campania has undertaken several initiatives to modernise and improve its processing of requests including through digitalisation, administrative streamlining, and strategic use of national funds (Box 3.2).
In response to increasing housing demand in parts of the region, Campania has undertaken several initiatives to modernise and improve its processing of requests for housing support through digitalisation, administrative streamlining, and strategic use of national funds.
The region has taken steps to centralise and digitise requests for housing needs into a single ranking system in order to better assess demand for public residential housing. As a result, it has gained a clearer picture of demand across the region. In response to the 2022 regional public notice for inclusion in the Register of Housing Needs, and in the corresponding rankings of those entitled to be allocated public residential housing (ERP), 31 717 applications were received across 383 out of 550 municipalities in Campania mostly from in and around Naples. In addition, during its last call for applications for rent support, the region piloted an innovative payment procedure using a digital platform that enabled the simultaneous disbursement of thousands of approved contributions directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiary citizens – greatly improving the speed with which residents were able to access rent support.
Source: 2022 (Region of Campania, 2021[14]) (Region of Campania, 2022[15]).
New development is occurring in a context of high housing vacancy rates
High housing vacancy rates are a challenge in both urban and rural areas of the region. In urban areas experiencing intense and increasing housing demand, including for tourism, a high share of vacant units can signal poor alignment between housing supply and demand. These units may remain empty because they are unaffordable, in poor condition, or poorly connected to services. Some units may also be kept vacant due to speculative investment or use as short-term tourist rentals. In rural areas with declining populations, high vacancy rates may reflect long-term demographic decline related to lack of economic opportunities and poor access to services, as well as prohibitive costs related to renovations.
High levels of vacant properties in both urban and rural contexts can lead to blighted landscapes that reduce the attractiveness of an area. In urban areas, vacant homes represent missed opportunities to support sustainable development by filling already existing housing stock. Optimising the use of vacant units can help address youth outmigration and ageing in Campania by providing students, working-age and older adults respectively with much needed affordable housing. In rural areas, there may not be sufficient incentives to fill vacant homes or to renovate ageing ones – but such cases can also present opportunities to improve service access and encourage rehabilitation for commercial reuse, supported by flexible zoning. Addressing housing vacancies through targeted renovation, repurposing, or demolition as appropriate can help ensure that housing systems support broader goals of territorial cohesion and environmental sustainability, including by reducing the need for new construction (OECD, 2025[16]).
Vacancy rates are highest in rural areas, reaching up to 76% in small rural inland municipalities (Figure 3.11). Around one-third of housing units are vacant in the more rural, inland provinces of Avellino and Benevento, as well as the partly inland and rural province of Salerno, which is higher than both the regional and national averages (Figure 3.12). As discussed in the previous section, the same three rural, inland provinces of Avellino, Benevento, and Salerno with the highest vacancy rates have had the highest increases in built-up area while also seeing a decrease in built-up volume. Given intense population decline in these provinces, one explanation for this trend could be that development is focused on creating new homes, perhaps secondary or vacation homes, or extensions of existing homes, rather than renovating existing units or demolishing dilapidated properties unfit for use.
Housing vacancy rates in Campania by municipality (%, 2021)
Source: OECD Local Data Portal
Housing vacancy rates in Campania by province (%, 2021)
Note: The percentages are based on the number of vacant units in a province out of the total housing units in that same province.
Source: ISTAT
To counter high rates of vacancy and abandoned property in rural areas, the region has applied funding from the National Strategy for Internal Areas (SNAI), which aims to revitalise these areas through improved infrastructure, access to public services and economic incentives. Funds used to promote agritourism and activities related to sustainable tourism have helped encourage the return of young families to rural areas and thus contribute to a more productive and sustainable use of land. However, there may be insufficient incentives for landowners to permit demolition of their property despite the negative impacts of abandoned homes on attractiveness.
The provinces of Salerno, Avellino and Benevento each have a greater share of the region’s housing vacancies than they do total housing units (Figure 3.13). The housing vacancy rate within Naples is the lowest out of Campania’s five provinces, below both the regional and national averages (5 and 8% lower, respectively), and the only province to have a greater share of the region’s total housing units than vacancies. However, at 265 742 vacant units, housing vacancies in Naples represent 9.2% of the total housing stock of the region. Many vacant units may be unfit for habitation, located in undesirable or poorly connected areas, held for speculative investment, or used for short-term tourism rentals, driving up prices and decreasing affordability.
Share of regional total of housing units and vacancies (%, 2021)
Note: data is displayed in order of the largest gaps between share of vacancies and share of housing units in the region.
Source: ISTAT
Ageing housing stock may be leading to demand for new units despite vacancies
Another potential driver of demand for new housing despite depopulation is the ageing of housing stock. More than two-thirds of housing units in Campania are more than 45 years old, and more than 29% are more than 65 years old (Table 3.1).
Distribution of residential dwellings by era of construction (% of total units in region)
Source: ISTAT
Older buildings often require extensive and costly upgrades to meet modern energy efficiency standards, safety regulations, and contemporary living expectations, including better accessibility for ageing or disabled residents. In many cases, these renovations can be more expensive or administratively complex than constructing a new home, particularly if structural deficiencies, outdated materials, or poor insulation make renovation impractical.
Additionally, planning regulations and zoning laws may not provide sufficient incentives for renovation, while new construction projects can benefit from government subsidies, streamlined permitting processes, or more flexible design possibilities. Municipalities in Campania also benefit from local taxes related to property and certain services, which may incentivise shrinking municipalities to permit construction of new homes rather than insist on costly renovations. This has likely contributed to a “race to the bottom” effect mentioned earlier where small, rural and shrinking municipalities are competing for new development in hopes of reaping the economic and social benefits associated with such activity at the expense of inefficient land use. Costs associated with meeting modern housing standards and regulations, as well as poor connectivity to key services, may discourage renovation of ageing housing stock.
In Italy, the national government provides guidelines for territorial development with a particular emphasis on Southern Italy and other economically lagging regions. Although the Constitution stipulates that the national government should prepare a framework law on planning, no such law has been approved by Parliament. The available tools include other national laws, strategic plans (such as the National Recovery and Resilience Plan) and financing programmes for infrastructure and development. In addressing demographic change, the national government provides strategic direction and financial resources to support local and regional policies.
Regions have a key role in spatial and land use planning, adapting national guidelines to territorial specificities. The regions develop Regional Territorial Plans (PTR) and regulations related to urban planning, sustainable development, landscape protection and land management, which define the structure and processes for provinces and municipalities to follow in preparing their land use plans (Box 3.3). Provinces produce the Provincial Territorial Coordination Plans to co-ordinate land-use decisions across municipalities and plan major infrastructure projects. In 2015, ten provinces across Italy, including Naples, were replaced by Metropolitan Cities. In the Campania Region, decisions on land use are primarily made at the local level by municipalities through the Municipal Urban Plan (PUC) and the more specific Urban Planning Implementation Plans (PUA), as well as Urban Structural Plans (PSU), Urban Building Regulations (RUE), and Integrated Valorisation Programmes (PIV), recently established by Law 5/2024, which integrated and modified Regional law no. 16/2004 (Rules on Territorial Governance).
The Regional Territorial Plan (Piano Territoriale Regionale – PTR), first approved in 2008 and updated in 2022, is Campania’s overarching strategic planning framework. Though non-binding, it guides regional spatial development across five thematic areas, including mobility, environmental risk, territorial diversity, polycentric development, and economic activity. It encourages inter-municipal coordination and provides guidance on social housing, infrastructure, and sustainable land use. However, it does not incorporate demographic projections.
The Regional Landscape Plan (Piano Paesaggistico Regionale – PPR), preliminarily approved in 2019, is legally binding and governs the protection and sustainable management of landscape assets. It includes mapping, assessment, and guidelines for use of landscape areas, and must be integrated into local and regional planning. It emphasises public participation, continuous monitoring, and includes the Regional Ecological Network Map. The PPR is designed to integrate with regional and local urban planning tools, intended to ensure alignment between landscape objectives and broader spatial strategies. The PPR does not include population projections.
Provincial Territorial Co-ordination Plans (Piani Territoriali di Coordinamento Provinciale – PTCP), stabilise the guidelines for the balanced development of the provincial and metropolitan territory by co-ordinating the urban planning policies of the municipalities to ensure a shared strategic vision. Provinces are also responsible for environmental protection, identifying and protecting areas of natural and landscape value. They manage infrastructures of supra-municipal interest, such as provincial roads and high schools, and help small municipalities to draft and implement their local urban plans.
The Territorial Plan for the Metropolitan City of Naples (Piano Territoriale della Città Metropolitana di Napoli – PTM), adopted in 2022, provides a co-ordinated development strategy for its 92 municipalities. It promotes polycentric growth, urban regeneration, and environmental preservation. The PTM also integrates mechanisms like urban equalisation to ensure equitable distribution of development benefits and responsibilities among municipalities.
Municipal Urban Plans (Piani Urbanistici Comunali – PUC) are the primary local land use plans, regulating land use, zoning, new construction, and regeneration. In line with Law 5/2024, municipalities are expected to update PUCs to promote urban regeneration, energy efficiency and resilience to environmental challenges. Urban Planning Implementation Plans (Piani Urbanistici Attuativi – PUA) are instruments used to regulate development of specific areas within a municipality, in line the PUC.
Law No. 5/2024 introduced three new instruments:
The Urban Structural Plan (Piano Strutturale Urbano – PSU) sets long-term objectives for land use, urban growth, and risk mitigation, with a focus on reducing land consumption and regenerating underused areas.
The Urban Building Regulation (Regolamento Urbanistico Edilizio – RUE) defines construction standards and planning compliance procedures, covering sustainability, safety, and building permits.
The Integrated Valorisation Programme (Programma Integrato di Valorizzazione – PIV) promotes strategic projects for urban and rural development, encouraging public–private investment aligned with regional sustainability goals.
The Operational Programme for Urban Regeneration, a specific technical-financial instrument for complex transformation interventions.
Recent planning reforms seek to promote sustainable development
The foundation of the current spatial planning framework in Campania was established in 2004 with the adoption of Regional Law No. 16/2004, titled "Norms on the Governance of the Territory" – since integrated into the recent Regional Law 5/2024- – which provided a comprehensive legal framework for urban and territorial planning in the region. The law aimed to improve land use through a co-ordinated system of planning instruments across regional, provincial, and municipal levels. The law established several significant principles, including sustainable land use, environmental and cultural preservation and risk mitigation, as well as energy efficiency. It promotes public participation to support more inclusive and resilient planning outcomes. It also established procedures for the formation and approval of various planning instruments, including the Regional Territorial Plan (PTR), Provincial Coordination Plans (PTCP), and Municipal Urban Plans (PUC) (Box 3.3).
The Regulation No. 5/2011 was designed to support the implementation of Law 16/2004, providing detailed procedures for plan formation and introducing incentives for municipalities to update their planning instruments (Region of Campania, 2011[21]). Regulation 5/2011 required municipalities to approve the preliminary planning document by the mandatory deadline of 31 March 2021, to adopt the PUC by 31 December 2024, and to approve it by 30 June 2026. It also provided financial incentives for municipalities, with priority given to municipalities devoid of general city planning instruments, those with a population of less than 10 000 inhabitants, and those which engage in inter-municipal planning (Region of Campania[17]). The law also outlined how municipalities could deploy equalisation measures, including through compensation and mechanisms for transferring building rights, to encourage urban regeneration and ensure a fair distribution of building rights among landowners affected by urban transformations (Region of Campania, 2011[21]).
The deadline and incentives did not lead to widespread updating of municipalities’ urban plans, and did not require that adopted plans were consistent with demographic trends and future projections. Urban sprawl and low-density development continued to consume more land, including in rural and shrinking areas, while urban regeneration did not occur at a sufficiently substantial rate. This may be due to the challenges to fostering greater land use efficiency such as technical, budgetary, and administrative capacity, limited inter-municipal co-ordination, and tax revenue generated from new development for small, shrinking rural municipalities, as well as the prohibitive costs to rehabilitating buildings or neighbourhoods that are dilapidated or abandoned.
As a result of limited action by municipalities, Regulation No. 7/2019 amended Regulation 5/2011 to increase financial support and establish a Regional Register of Acting Commissioners (Commissari ad Acta), who can exert decision-making power over municipalities who are in default regarding the creation of PUCs (Box 3.4). These interventions seek to close the financial and technical capacity gaps for municipalities that may otherwise not be able to establish PUCs. Since then, many municipalities have taken action to implement PUCs; between 2020 and 2024, the region financed a total of 320 municipalities to support PUC development, including 198 municipalities in 2020–2021, 24 in 2022, 50 in 2023, and 48 in 2024. Thanks to these financial and regulatory tools, and continuous monitoring efforts, the PUC adoption process has accelerated significantly: as of 31 March 2025, 199 municipalities (36%) had approved a PUC and 148 (27%) had adopted one, while 190 (35%) remained in the preliminary phase, 10 municipalities (2%) had taken formal initial steps, and 3 have not yet begun (ANCE Campania, 2025[22]).
Building on the innovations introduced by Regional Law 16/2004 and further strengthened through Law 5/2024, the region seeks to address the aforementioned challenges by promoting a renewed and streamlined approach to urban planning across territorial scales. This updated framework prioritises urban sustainability and responds to the realities of demographic decline in Campania’s inland areas, anchored in a multi-level governance vision operationalised through broad-area PIVs and their corresponding Masterplans.
To support the drafting of Municipal Urban Plans (PUC), the Campania Region financed the PUCs in 198 municipalities during 2020-21, providing EUR 10 000 each, for a total of EUR 1 980 000. For the 2022-24 period, an additional EUR 1 250 000 was allocated. In 2022, 24 municipalities received funding. In 2023, 50 more municipalities with populations under 50 000 were funded, and in 2024, a further 48 municipalities were supported. In total, 220 municipalities (40% of the region) have received financial support to create PUCs between 2020-24.
Campania also maintains a Regional Register of Acting Commissioners (Commissari ad Acta), who can exercise substitute powers in municipal planning. Initially composed of 194 qualified professionals (technicians and lawyers), the register was updated in 2024 with an additional 20 entries, based on a new round of applications. The register is managed by the General Directorate for the Government of the Territory.
Source: (Region of Campania[23])
Persisting challenges in ensuring adoption or updates to local urban plans subsequently led to the enactment of Regional Law No. 5/2024, which reformed and updated the planning framework to better address contemporary needs. Law No. 5/2024 aims to increase regional prioritisation of urban regeneration over new land consumption, with the objective of reaching net zero land take by 2050 (Region of Campania, 2024[19]). It encourages the reuse of degraded or underutilised areas, integrates environmental and landscape protection, and addresses natural risks such as hydrogeological and seismic hazards. Provisions also support energy efficiency, sustainable mobility, and the enhancement of cultural and ecological assets.
In addition to the above goals, which largely build on the directives of earlier regional territorial planning laws and regulations aforementioned, the law also features several new and concrete tools to empower greater local and regional level action toward efficient and sustainable land use. First, it establishes a regional observatory to monitor land consumption, climate change impacts, and environmental risks, representing a more data-driven and preventive approach to spatial governance. The law establishes joint planning agreements as well, which can be formed between municipalities and unlock funding to support efforts. Law 5/2024 also empowers local public authorities to use LVC instruments, including to acquire land or buildings for example for city regeneration projects, which would be managed through the PUC and other municipal spatial planning instruments mentioned in Box 3.3.
Law 5/2024 also may make progress in adjusting land use in the region to demographic realities by promoting the importance of urban regeneration and the fight against unnecessary land consumption and encouraging the recovery and redevelopment of existing building stock However, due to its recent adoption, little evidence yet exists of impact or uptake of the law’s key components. As Law 5/2024 matures, the region can assess which features of the law are leading to adoption of regional planning priorities by municipalities and reallocate resources and support accordingly.
Land use and spatial planning instruments can be updated and streamlined to adapt the region to demographic decline
The Campania region has taken action in recent years to modernise its spatial planning, promote sustainable development and improve the quality of life of residents while preserving land. Regional reforms to urban planning policies and plans starting in 2004 have increasingly sought to encourage strategic urban regeneration, renovation and rehabilitation of Campania’s built environment, as well as protection of its extensive natural and agricultural assets. Incentives, deadlines, and support from the regional government have encouraged adoption of local urban plans in many municipalities. Campania’s planning system sets worthwhile goals regarding environmental sustainability, decongestion polycentrism, and urban regeneration.
More efficient land use that is better aligned with the demographic realities of the region, including urban regeneration, renovations and rehabilitations of existing building stock, and demolition and land conservation in declining areas, is still not happening enough. Such efforts in Campania appear to be hindered by the absence of a formal linkage between planning and demographic trends, inadequate vertical and inter-municipal co-ordination, and weak administrative capacity limiting the uptake of updated municipal plans, resulting in slow responses to demographic challenges and inefficient land use patterns in both urban and rural areas.
The global shift towards urban policy designed to promote more environmentally sustainable development has led to increased efforts to rein in urban expansion and a stronger focus on regenerating existing urban areas, requiring innovative planning and new public interventions in land markets (Colavitti and Serra, 2023[24]). Urban development is now more closely tied to accessibility and amenities rather than land transformation, increasing competition for well-located areas – which in turn exacerbates demographic decline in rural areas. In many urban areas of the region, the interplay of residential, commercial and industrial functions is not well harmonised, causing congestion and compromising quality of life; meanwhile in rural areas, abandonment of building heritage and agricultural land pose significant challenges. Strategic spatial planning at the supra-municipal level is needed to manage imbalances between urban cores and peripheral areas (ibid).
Regional spatial plans do not explicitly link planning with demographic realities
The PTR has examined the correlations between demographic trends and housing stock in the past (e.g., during periods 1981-91 and 1991-2001), but does not define population thresholds or demographic projections. According to the PTR, approximately 48.5% of municipalities and 10.7% of the population are located in areas facing settlement challenges, characterised by depopulation and lack of services. In the 2006 version of the PTR, the region committed to pursue a strategy of “Polycentric and Balanced Spatial Development” aimed at reinforcing polycentrism by decongesting major urban centres and enhancing the role of smaller towns through decentralisation of activities and urban reorganisation.
2022 updates to the PTR that focus on administrative simplification, digitalisation, and the deployment of multidisciplinary task forces to support local administrations, reduce delays and enhance the co-ordination of territorial development projects, are significant and can support efforts to adapt to demographic decline (Region of Campania, 2022[25]). However, to better address demographic decline, the PTR can explicitly integrate demographic trends and projections to guide land use. This would require not only updating the PTR itself but also incentivising or mandating that municipal and subregional plans follow suit through legal requirements, technical support, and potentially fiscal penalties to ensure local planning aligns with demographic realities.
The Regional Landscape Plan (PPR) promotes more sustainable land use and balanced territorial development by supporting efforts to minimise impacts of tourism on historic centres, the relocation of coastal activities to inland areas, and the revitalisation of depopulated towns and villages. It also encourages investment in digital infrastructure, tourism circuits, and community-led reuse of underutilised settlements to enhance the attractiveness of remote areas. However, the real impact of the PPR will need to be evaluated, given that the purpose of landscape requalification and its related development is an essential element of this Plan. In addition to the spatial plans mentioned above, the region’s demographic realities could be better incorporated into several other regional-level sectoral plans that influence land use and settlement patterns. For example, the Reclamation Plan, which focuses on the decontamination and recovery of polluted or abandoned land, could be more effectively prioritised using spatial plans that integrate demographic projections to identify areas with long-term viability. This would ensure that investments in land recovery support regeneration efforts, while considering decommissioning or ecological restoration in areas with sustained depopulation.
Similarly, the Rural Development Plan could benefit from a more targeted approach informed by rural demographic decline and ageing patterns that helps promote strategic polycentrism. The goal of polycentrism is to create a network of centres with complementary functions to improve regional competitiveness and the potential for economic and social development. Creating more robust and well-connected small service centres beyond Naples could also help better adapt to population decline in rural areas by ensuring settlements are concentrated in these service centres or in places well-connected to them at low cost. This would also help improve quality of life and economic conditions and may therefore retain residents.
Masterplans in more rural territories, investments through SNAI, PNRR, and PINQUA, and efforts to limit new land consumption support this goal. However, while inland areas in the region have much to offer regarding cultural, food, wine, and nature-based tourism, resources dedicated to reversing depopulation in shrinking rural inland areas might be more impactful if strategically directed to somewhat stable and well-connected small service centres in these rural territories, as well as municipalities immediately surrounding these service centres. Aligning interventions better with demographic data would help proportionately allocate resources to rural communities in a strategic manner that reaches more residents, yielding greater value for money. This could include focusing diversification efforts on service centres that serve surrounding depopulating areas, strengthening accessibility, services, and digital infrastructure in a way that aligns with realistic long-term population scenarios.
Vertical and inter-municipal co-ordination is not used enough to align land use with population trends
Vertical and inter-municipal co-ordination in spatial planning and land use decisions is not sufficiently responding to demographic and development trends. This is key for developing the service centers in rural areas. Co-ordinating these plans with local urban plans could support the renovation or demolition of unfit properties and replacing them with denser multi-use developments, industrial parks or nature that could both limit new land consumption and increase attractiveness in rural or declining places.
PTCPs can co-ordinate land-use decisions across municipalities within the same province, but this may have limitations when planning is required across provincial lines. Some of the municipalities with the largest gaps between BUA increase and population decline during 2010-2020 were located outside the border of the Metropolitan City of Naples (Figure 3.6). This suggests that inter-municipal co-ordination across provincial lines could be helpful to ensure that low-density development is not amassing just outside the boundaries of PTCPs (or in Naples’ case, the PTM of Naples). These plans should also be updated to explicitly incorporate demographic trends and projections to ensure consistency with any associated updates to the PTR and PUCs. Masterplans facilitated and supported by the region represent an effective method of marshalling inter-municipal co-ordination (Box 3.5).
Masterplans co-ordinated by the regional government represent effective inter-municipal planning mechanisms that can help smaller municipalities compensate for limited capacity, achieve economies of scale, establish service centres, and promote urban regeneration – all of which supports these communities in adopting to demographic change. The region typically initiates and funds the masterplans, defines strategic priorities, facilitates co-ordination, provides technical and planning support, monitors implementation, and encourages public-private partnerships.
The Ufita Valley PIV-Masterplan, activated by the Campania Regional Council on 21 March 2023, is framed by the PTR and supported by the regional government. The plan targets development in 11 small rural municipalities, as well as a buffer area encompassing 17 additional municipalities included based on specific guidelines related to enhancement (valorizzazione) in development, ecology, landscape, heritage, and production, totalling an area of 773 km2 with a population of around 79 000 residents as of 2020. Municipalities in the target area fall within two aggregations of the ‘City Systems’ provided for in the Territorial Coordination Plan of the Province of Avellino to promote the strengthening of provincial urban structures and co-ordinated planning at the level of several neighbouring municipalities.
The Masterplan outlines several strategic priorities for the area’s regeneration and development, including ones designed to address demographic decline, increase transport connectivity, promote urban regeneration, and facilitate access to services for rural populations. For example, Ariano Irpino is the only centre in the target area with a quality supply of public services and sports and recreational facilities but is not easily accessible due to its location (817 m above sea level) and for the quality of connecting roads, leading to material and cultural isolation and difficulties accessing essential services for nearby rural residents, followed by depopulation. Investments in infrastructure linking this service centre with rural communities in the target area can help combat some of the conditions leading to population decline and poor standards of living for rural residents.
Other Masterplans in the region include:
Terra dei Fuochi: Focuses on environmental remediation, land recovery, and socio-economic revitalisation in areas affected by illegal waste dumping and pollution.
Litorale Domitio Flegreo: Aims to rehabilitate the Domitian-Flegrean coastline through environmental restoration, sustainable tourism development, and improved public access.
Alta Irpinia: Promotes the revitalisation of inner mountain areas through cultural heritage enhancement, rural development, and sustainable tourism strategies.
Salerno Costa Sud: Promotes the territorial integration of coastal municipalities in relation to the productive hinterland through integrated urban regeneration phenomena with rural and productive development, commercial supply chains, and tourism and boating promotion.
Il Cilento costiero: Promotes collaboration among municipalities aimed at sustainable tourism development and connection with the Cilento Park and internal areas.
Il Sarnese-Nocerino and Valle Caudina: Promote the productive specificities of the territories in terms of service integration and productive implementation of specific sectors.
Source: (Region of Campania, 2023[26]); (Europa Campania[27]); Region of Campania.
A lack of co-ordination among municipalities regarding land use and housing provision is likely a major contributor to competition between small and shrinking municipalities to attract residents and thus generate property tax revenue, exacerbating the disconnect between increased land development and population decline. Smaller municipalities would also benefit from increased inter-municipal planning that ensures economies of scale in both technical and financial capacity and reduce redundancies in development. For example, inter-municipal planning among rural shrinking municipalities, especially when anchored by the participation of a stable service centre, can help co-ordinate the establishment or maintenance of one school or hospital, rather than each municipality struggling to establish or maintain these amenities with limited funds or staff. The region could consider imposing sanctions that ban access to European Structural Funds for municipalities without an effective and compliant PUC, as has been done in the Azores, Portugal (Cavaco et al., 2021[28]).
Capacity gaps in local administrations have delayed adoption of PUCs, allowing suboptimal land use to continue
Campania has already identified priority actions to increase more polycentric and balanced development including enhancing the unique characteristics of each urban centre; developing communication and transport networks to interconnect cities; identifying development paths to support smaller centres; strengthening existing hubs and developing new ones; and improving co-ordination between different institutional and planning levels. However, despite their close alignment with needs to adapt the region to demographic decline, many municipalities lack the technical and administrative resources to implement their urban plans effectively, particularly in smaller or rural areas.
Municipalities may hold excessive responsibilities for land use decisions compared to their capacity to respond to regional-level objectives or address demographic change in a timely manner, limiting the region's ability to quickly adapt to new demographic and socio-economic needs. Increased support from the region for co-ordination, evaluation and implementation is likely needed to ensure widescale modernisation of local planning that reflects demographic trends. While the region has made progress in ensuring municipalities adopt PUCs through incentives and legal requirements, this may not be a fiscally sustainable approach. In response to delays, technical and financial support could become conditionally tied to development and investment in local service centres, urban generation, and limits on low-density development. EU funds could be used to augment technical support and capacity for such adoption.
Housing policies in the spatial planning system can help adapt to demographic change
The regional government has invested national and EU funds in urban regeneration and promoting more rational and environmentally sustainable development, including through Law 5/2024. However, Campania’s housing challenges remain characterised by a stark divide in housing prices and demand between its urban coastal area and its inland rural areas, a high share of vacant and abandoned homes, and an ageing housing stock. These trends pose challenges for local governments, developers, and residents, requiring innovative strategies to optimise use of existing housing and promote regeneration where possible; demolish properties and return land to natural use if unsalvageable; prevent further deterioration of stock; encourage denser development; and protect the environment.
While the region is endeavouring for municipalities to adopt PUCs that promote urban regeneration and limit new development, the aspect of PUCs that address housing needs could be more strongly linked with demographic trends. For example, while permit processes in Campania allow some opportunities for municipalities to comment on proposed projects and extract some fees or obligations, decision-making is not linked to demographic trends. The current permitting process for new housing involves a standard request submitted to the municipality, compliance checks with current planning regulations, collecting opinions from relevant agencies, and permit fees. For more complex developments such as land subdivisions or urban regeneration projects involving multiple plots or buildings, the proposal must go through a separate procedure that leads to the approval of an Urban Regeneration Operational Programme. If this plan complies with the municipality’s PUC, it is approved by the City Council. The final approval also outlines obligations for private developers involved. This could represent an opportunity for the region to leverage planning permissions to align development with demographic trends, by streamlining permits for renovations, redevelopments, demolitions, and high-density development in areas with strong demand or quality connectivity, while denying permits for new low-density developments in areas with low demand. Such an approach would likely lead to increased private investment and renewed interest in areas that are still in a state of decline. Regional Law 5/2024 aims to address this by introducing a range of provisions aimed at enhancing the availability and quality of housing in Campania while incentivising urban regeneration, redevelopment of the existing building stock, and the revitalisation of rural and peri-urban areas. The Urban Building Regulation (RUE) sets standards for construction, renovation, and land use, ensuring compliance with environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, and safety requirements, defines procedures for obtaining building permits, and outlines the responsibilities of developers and property owners in adhering to urban planning objectives. The RUE thus provides an opportunity for the region and its municipalities to bind permitting for housing construction to demographic trends, limiting low-density building in areas of decline and promoting high-density construction in areas of growth. The "Salva Casa Campania" initiative, designed to streamline compliance for housing with minor irregularities and simplify urban management by standardising forms and permitting across municipalities (Grigis, 2025[29]), is a strong example of how permitting and compliance can be leveraged to optimise use of existing building stock.
While housing policies within the spatial planning system can be better linked to demographic trends, the region is strategically investing in housing designed to address the needs of young people in response to youth outmigration. As part of its broad suite of efforts to rehabilitate and operationalise existing housing assets, the region has financed eight projects to create 465 new dormitory units in Naples, Portici, Benevento and Caserta, helping satisfy demand in these areas and improve the provision of university residential services across Campania. These projects, which involve the recovery of long-unused properties, have been selected based on their high quality of design and aim to overcome the traditional "student dormitory" model, proposing innovative solutions with various housing typologies and functions that are well integrated with the surrounding city and its services. They are 75% covered by co-financing for a total EUR 46 million.
Land value capture can support efficient land use and generate revenues from tourism demand
The PTR of Campania explicitly incorporates mechanisms aligned with land value capture (LVC), particularly through urban equalisation (perequazione urbanistica). This approach is detailed in Regional Regulation No. 5/2011 and Law 5/2024, which outline how municipalities can implement equalisation, compensation, and incentive systems within their urban planning instruments (Region of Campania, 2011[21]). These mechanisms aim to ensure a fair distribution of the benefits and burdens arising from urban development among property owners, thereby capturing increases in land value generated by public planning decisions and infrastructure investments.
Under this framework and through the PUC, municipalities can designate urban transformation areas (ambiti di trasformazione urbana), which may include already built-up land and/or vacant or underused parcels, and are intended to facilitate urban regeneration and densification using structured planning and equalisation tools. This is particularly relevant for converting obsolete industrial zones to new urban uses, reconfiguring urban fabric for mixed-use, and developing underused or vacant plots within or adjacent to settlements – all of which can be useful for creating service hubs. In these areas, development rights are allocated equitably among landowners, regardless of the specific zoning of their parcels, allowing for the aggregation of land for public uses, such as infrastructure, green spaces, or affordable housing, without resorting to expropriation.
The PTR, in conjunction with Regional Law No. 16/2004 and the reforms of Law No. 5/2024, provides the legal basis for these practices. By integrating these LVC mechanisms into regional planning, Campania aims to harness the increase in land values resulting from public actions to fund further development initiatives, thereby fostering equitable and sustainable growth across the region. Law 5/2024 specifically includes density and height bonuses for regeneration projects, including 20% bonuses for extensions, 35% for replacements, and up to 30% of new volume dedicated to social housing (Moccia, 2024[30]). It also promotes the development of Integrated Valorisation Programmes (PIVs) to guide medium and long-term territorial strategies.
However, uptake of this capability has been limited so far as the law is new and due to limits in technical and staff capacity in most municipalities. Currently, the main levers for land value capture in practice principally include municipalities collecting revenue from landowners whose properties have building potential through an annual municipal tax (IMU), and through fees collected in exchange for the issuance of direct or negotiated building permits for construction projects.
Expropriation, penalties for underuse, and repurposing confiscated land
When the region deems it necessary, it can resort to expropriation for public use in cases where it does not own the land or assets needed for the implementation of a project. The expropriation procedure follows the rules and processes outlined in the “Consolidated Text of Legislative and Regulatory Provisions on Expropriation for Public Use”, approved at the national level by Presidential Decree No. 327 of 8 June 2001. The timing and complexity of expropriation procedures vary depending on the scale of the project, its intended function, and whether or not it is included within a territorial or urban planning framework. Examples of expropriation in the region include major transport investments such as motorway upgrades (A1 and A2 “Mediterranea”), the high-speed rail line between Afragola and Naples, energy infrastructure, including high-voltage transmission lines and wind farms, and hydrogeological risk mitigation projects such as slope stabilisation and river management (Region of Campania, 2025[31]). The mechanism has been used by the state, the region, municipalities, and concessionary companies in the implementation of strategic projects and enabling public investment – indicating that the region could enhance its use of expropriation to address land use issues related to demographic decline and to improve regional attractiveness. The region has also facilitated the reuse, rehabilitation, and enhancement of assets seized and confiscated from organised crime via Regional Law No. 7/2012 – representing both a practical method to promote sustainable redevelopment and a strong symbol of regeneration for the region (Box 3.6).
In response to the need for the socially responsible reuse of assets seized from organised crime, the Campania Region introduced Regional Law No. 7/2012, establishing a dedicated programme for the rehabilitation and development of confiscated properties.
The law aims to transform these formerly illicit assets into instruments of community benefit by supporting their social, institutional, and productive reactivation. It provides financial and technical assistance to local authorities and non-profit organisations for the acquisition, renovation, and functional conversion of buildings and land, enabling their reuse for public services, cultural or educational facilities, social enterprises, and housing for vulnerable groups. Priority is given to projects that contribute to local development and social cohesion, and the programme places strong emphasis on transparency and monitoring to ensure the long-term sustainability and visibility of these transformations.
Campania is currently implementing 106 initiatives related to the reuse of assets confiscated from organised crime, with a total investment exceeding EUR 47 million from European, national, and regional sources. Of these, 87 projects are managed by the Region and 19 by the Ministry of the Interior. These include both renovation works and support for asset management.
Between 2019 and 2021, the Region launched 44 projects through three public calls, focused on the renovation and redevelopment of confiscated properties for institutional, social, and productive use. These were funded with EUR 4.47 million in regional resources. In 2019, an additional 5 projects were financed with EUR 750 000 to support start-up, social innovation, and social economy initiatives using confiscated assets. In 2021, 6 projects received EUR 276 395 in funding to support the management and effective reuse of these assets, with a focus on social economy development and community benefit.
Through the ESF+, a programme of initiatives concerning confiscated assets has been funded, structured around two lines of action. The first aims to strengthen the governance of real estate assets and businesses confiscated from criminal organisations. It focuses on the dissemination of best practices, monitoring activities, and the implementation of training and mentoring pathways for both public administrations and managing entities. The second line of action supports measures to improve employability, specifically targeting social enterprises and social co-operatives. A total of 19 projects have been approved for funding. These projects represent not only a practical method to promote sustainable redevelopment of existing building stock, but a strong symbol of regeneration within the region. Through this approach, the Region seeks both to address social needs and to restore public trust in areas historically affected by criminal influence.
A viable expropriation framework could support the region in addressing its high rate of dilapidated or abandoned properties, particularly where private ownership hinders regeneration or environmental goals, for example in economically unviable, partially inhabited condominiums affected by depopulation. By allowing public authorities to acquire neglected land or buildings that pose safety, environmental, or social concerns, expropriation enables targeted interventions. It could also be useful to enable expropriation when empty or partially empty housing becomes economically unviable. Once acquired, these properties can be rehabilitated for public use, redeveloped for social or affordable housing, converted to provide key services for remaining populations (e.g., schools or care centres), or strategically returned to a natural state to support environmental preservation. When integrated into broader spatial planning strategies, expropriation can thus help align land use with regional development and sustainability objectives in a context of demographic decline.
At one time, local governments in Italy could expropriate unserviced land at predevelopment prices, rezone the land, service it and build affordable and social housing, allowing them to recover the increase in land values generated by the zoning change, servicing and housing investment (OECD/Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, PKU-Lincoln Institute Center, 2022[34]). However, since 1990, public infrastructure and services as well as affordable and social housing provision shifted from expropriation-based approaches to contributions by landowners in exchange for development approval or transferable development rights. Italy could revisit empowering local governments to conduct expropriation at predevelopment prices for these purposes.
Increasing penalties for owners of vacant housing or underdeveloped or neglected land can also serve as a deterrent against long-term abandonment and encourage more responsible land stewardship. Currently, private landowners in Campania generally do not face penalties when land is underdeveloped or undeveloped. The national government could allow municipalities to introduce a tax on secondary residences and/or vacant properties (Box 3.7).
The City of Vancouver created the Empty Homes Tax (EHT) to address housing affordability and availability challenges by increasing the rental housing supply. The policy requires property owners to submit an annual property status declaration to determine whether their property is subject to the tax. The tax applies to homes that are left vacant for more than six months in a year, unless they serve as a principal residence, are rented for at least six months in 30-day increments, or meet specific exemption criteria. This measure has had a significant impact on improving housing availability and promoting a shift toward long-term rentals. It also encourages better use of existing housing stock and discourages speculative ownership. The revenues generated by the tax have been reinvested in affordable housing programmes, further supporting local housing policy objectives. The EHT is now viewed as a policy tool with strong potential for replication in cities facing similar challenges around housing scarcity and vacancy.
Since its introduction, Vancouver’s EHT has had a measurable impact on the city’s housing market. Between 2017 and 2023, the number of vacant properties fell by 58%, reflecting improved housing utilisation. The EHT also generated CAD 169.8 million in revenue, which was directed toward affordable housing initiatives, helping to expand access for residents. Notably, in just one year following the tax's introduction (2018-2019), approximately 5 920 condominium units were added to the long-term rental market, contributing to increased housing availability in the city.
Source: (City of Vancouver[35])
Spatial planning that aligns land use with demographic trends can help to preserve valuable ecosystems, mitigate environmental degradation, and promote compact development patterns that reduce fiscal burdens related to infrastructure expansion. A combination of urban planning, property taxation and effective land value capture strategy can promote urban regeneration, sustainable development, and environmental preservation in a context of demographic decline (Colavitti and Serra, 2023[24]).
Demographic projections should be systematically integrated into planning decisions at all levels – regional, provincial, inter-municipal, and municipal – ensuring that land use choices are both forward-looking and realistic. This includes evaluating whether areas with severe and long-term population decline are better suited to regeneration or to strategic demolition followed by the return of land to rural or ecological use, in line with sustainability and territorial cohesion objectives. Campania could explore using Cohesion Policy funds related to Policy Objective 2 (a greener, low-carbon Europe) to support returning land to natural use in shrinking areas with little demand.
Local urban plans must be updated to encourage denser development and provide deeper incentives for renovation. Smart densification can help address these challenges through approaches aligned with the New European Bauhaus principles, creating attractive, sustainable and inclusive spaces that appeal to the educated, mobile workforce essential for escaping the talent development trap. Efficient spatial development is essential to protect Campania’s precious and valuable environmental landscapes that form the region's identity. Higher densities can also facilitate the provision of affordable and social housing, a recognised priority in the EU Cohesion Policy mid-term review, directly addressing the housing challenges that contribute to youth outmigration. Given Campania’s exposure to climate impacts and demographic pressures, smart densification can deliver co-benefits by reducing emissions, preserving natural capital, and creating inclusive, vibrant communities that can successfully compete for talent in an increasingly mobile European labour market, in line with Cohesion Policy Objectives 1 (a smarter Europe) and 2 (a greener Europe). Efforts could be amplified by incentivising urban regeneration through greater use of LVC and other mechanisms in the region, particularly in high-demand areas such as the Metropolitan City of Naples, smaller FUAs in the region, and growing suburban municipalities in the Neapolitan belt, to augment funding support for public services in rural inland shrinking areas. A more proactive approach to vacant and abandoned properties by the region – through expropriation, rehabilitation, demolition, property management or other types of interventions – can alternatively help adapt housing stock to housing needs close to service centres, or return land to natural state.
Tying housing construction permitting to demographic trends and future projections can prevent new construction in low-density, poorly connected areas and support net zero land take goals. The upcoming Cohesion Policy mid-term review should present an opportunity to channel additional ERDF resources toward strategic housing rehabilitation and rural housing projects that address both demographic decline and affordability challenges. For instance, the region could tie housing-related recommendations designed to address demographic change to Cohesion Policy Objectives 4 (a more social Europe) and ROP action 4.3.1, which aims to combat housing hardship for targeted groups. Campania can also build on current efforts to provide youth-friendly housing to prioritise the reuse of buildings for co-housing for students, young single people, and families, as well as co-working hubs and creative industries, aligning such efforts with schemes to attract youth-led start-ups or returning graduates.
Strengthening municipal co-ordination can facilitate access to technical support, encourage replicating successful co-planning initiatives. Efforts like the Ufita Valley and other Masterplans (Box 3.5) represent strong examples of how the region can promote co-planning between municipalities, led by the region.
Updating local plans to increase land use efficiency and attractiveness
Updating the Regional Territorial Plan to reflect demographic trends
To fully align spatial planning with long-term regional needs related to demographic decline, the PTR would benefit from the explicit integration of demographic trends and projections. While the updated version of the PTR from 2022 includes important stipulations for strengthening institutional capacity and streamlining administrative procedures to support the implementation of investments from the PNRR and EU Cohesion Policy, it does not explicitly link planning goals with demographic change. Doing so would help ensure that administrative reforms and investment priorities respond to population shifts such as urban concentration, rural depopulation, and ageing, guiding more strategic decisions on land use, infrastructure, and service provision.
Although the PTR is not binding, the region should at minimum update the plan to incorporate demographic projections alongside stronger incentives and support for subregional and local plans to do the same, and consider legal requirements and fiscal penalties to ensure adoption. For instance, the PTR could require PUCs to base planning and permitting on regional or national demographic data, provide technical support to those in need to do so, and penalise those that leave out demographic trends.
Considering the long delay in adoption of PUCs by municipalities, bold action is likely required to ensure local development and urban plans are more closely linked to these projections, which can help Campania adapt land use to its demographic realities, protect the environment, and strategically steer development to certain areas – including rural service centres. Campania could also explore using EU Cohesion Policy funds related to Policy Objective 5 (a Europe closer to citizens) to support more granular spatial planning that reflects its demographic reality.
Ensuring all municipalities have updated Municipal Urban Plans that reflect demographic realities
To ensure local governments update PUCs to reflect population realities, prioritise urban regeneration, and restrict new land consumption, the region can build on the important urban planning reforms of Law 2024/5. Technical and financial incentives for municipalities to adopt or update plans should be evaluated for efficacy and adjusted accordingly, given slow uptake. Based on evaluations of how incentives correlate with adoption of plans, incentives, technical support and potentially penalties should be applied to ensure all municipalities adopt a PUC that is based on regional or national population data trends and projections. Priority regeneration zones (urban transformation areas) should be defined via PUCs in urban centres, especially in smaller service hubs.
EU and national funds can be tied directly to the adoption of PUCs and other local plans that explicitly tie demographic trends and projections from regional or national data sources to planning and permitting. Campania can then assess the impact of PUCs (new and existing) on improving outcomes related to efficient land use including changes observed in BUA growth and housing vacancy rates, perhaps though its newly created land observatory.
PTCPs and the Territorial Plan for the Metropolitan City of Naples should also be updated to explicitly incorporate demographic trends and projections to ensure consistency. The region’s Reclamation Plan and Rural Development Plan could also benefit from a more targeted approach informed by demographic trends and ageing patterns.
To date, Campania has chosen to await the adoption of the Landscape Plan before proceeding with the update of the Regional Territorial Plan (PTR), despite the fact that the former is not legally binding.
Zoning the region for place-based planning policies by adopting Masterplans
As part of an overarching regional strategy to address demographic change, Campania could explore a granular zoning of territories, e.g. below the NUTS3 level, to support more targeted place-based policies, similar to the approach of Castilla-La Mancha region in Spain (Box 3.8). Zoning should go beyond population size to incorporate factors such as density, land use and proximity to service centres. Such zoning would support the catchment areas for formalised inter-municipal planning instruments and support a more strategic and targeted allocation of resources.
The example of Castilla-La Mancha region of Spain demonstrates how regions can adopt a co-ordinated response that anticipates demographic changes and involves cross sectorial responses in the face of demographic decline.
In June 2021, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, enacted the "Economic, Social, and Tax Measures Against Depopulation and for the Development of Rural Areas" to address rural depopulation through a cross-sectoral approach. The Law was developed in response to the region’s severe demographic challenges, with more than 80% of its municipalities having fewer than 2 000 inhabitants.
The law adopts a place-based, integrated and rural proofed approach to investment. It includes tax incentives, support for small entrepreneurs, targeted measures support for vulnerable populations, and cross-sectoral initiatives.
Zoning of territories below the NUTS3 level has supported a place-based policy approach by incorporating factors such as population density, land use, and proximity to urban centres, with monitoring systems in place.
Source: EC/OECD Policy Seminar, 19 March 2025, Brussels, Belgium.
Supporting smart densification to enhance environmental sustainability and public service efficiency
Incentivising urban regeneration
The region can build on volumetric incentives offered through Law 5/2024 to support increased use of land value capture (LVC) mechanisms (Box 3.9) to encourage urban regeneration and compact growth. LVC could be particularly effective in areas like the Metropolitan City of Naples with high tourism demand, where rising land and property values, driven in large part by the tourism sector via hotel development and short-term rentals, often price out local residents.
By leveraging LVC instruments such as developer obligations, impact fees, or infrastructure levies on new tourist-oriented developments, public authorities can reclaim a portion of the value that accrues to private landowners due to the permitting of tourism development. These funds can then be reinvested locally to support affordable housing initiatives in high-demand urban centres, including the rehabilitation of long-vacant properties, helping to maintain social diversity and sustainable development. At the same time, revenues from LVC can also be directed toward smaller towns and service centres in rural areas, supporting their economic resilience, infrastructure, and attractiveness, and helping to counterbalance regional disparities intensified by tourism-driven development.
The OECD-Lincoln taxonomy standardises the terminology and definitions for the following LVC instruments, allowing for meaningful cross-country comparisons while minimising confusion.
Infrastructure levy: taxes or fees levied on landowners possessing land that has gained value due to government-initiated infrastructure development
Developer obligations: cash or in-kind contributions that defray costs for additional infrastructure or services that need to be provided due to private development
Charges for development rights: cash or in-kind contributions payable in exchange for development rights or development potential above a set density baseline
Land readjustment: the practice of pooling fragmented land parcels for joint development, with owners transferring a portion of their land for public use
Source: OECD/Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, PKU-Lincoln Institute Center (2022[34]), Global Compendium of Land Value Capture Policies, OECD Regional Development Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4f9559ee-en.
To overcome limited technical or administrative capacity to implement these LVC mechanisms, the regional government could establish a centralised technical team – or expand the role of the Regional Register of Commissioners – to encourage the use of developer obligations and offer training, guidance, methodologies, and legal support to municipalities, ensuring effective and co-ordinated land management across the region. Such efforts could be linked to EU Cohesion Policy Objective 5 (a Europe closer to its citizens) and executed in support of multiple objectives related to supporting local administrative capacity in its Regional ERDF Programme 2021-2027.
In rural areas, in line with this approach, Campania could use developer obligations to internalise the costs that arise from sparse development to deter low-density sprawl. These should include infrastructure, service provision and environmental costs. To discourage further dispersed, low-density land consumption, Campania could reduce charges for projects in designated densification zones while applying higher fees to developments in peripheral or ecologically sensitive areas. The region could also explore linking efforts to return unused developed land to natural use to EU Cohesion Policy funds related to Policy Objective 2 (a greener Europe), as well as to actions 4.3.2 and 4.6.1 of the Regional ERDF Programme 2021-2027 – which support the recovery, reuse and re-functionalization of assets confiscated from organised crime and the role of culture and tourism in inclusive economic development, respectively (Region of Campania[2]).
Facilitating land adjustment and transfer of development rights in rural areas
Considering the high rate of vacant housing units and abandoned property in the region – particularly in declining inland areas – the region can encourage landowners to consolidate fragmented plots in exchange for better-serviced and more compact developments located elsewhere. Formal inter-municipal planning instruments and joint planning agreements for rural municipalities should embed incentives for repurposing land for sustainable agriculture, eco-tourism, or industrial parks.
Stronger fiscal and technical incentives could be introduced for refurbishing, or, if necessary, demolishing unfit properties and replacing them with dense, multi-use developments, industrial parks, or nature reserves. Height allowances in plans at all levels can be adjusted to support vertical expansion, thereby encouraging the redevelopment of already developed but abandoned land.
Streamlining expropriation procedures for abandoned properties would support efforts and could be held in a land bank or trust.
Matching housing supply with demand to alleviate housing pressures in urban areas and support service access and environmental preservation in rural areas
Issuing housing permits in alignment with current and future demographic trends
Campania can require and support municipalities to evaluate housing permits based on demographic projections contained within updated PUCs, PUAs and RUEs, limiting new and low-density construction in rural and declining areas while promoting renovation, rehabilitation, and dense and vertical development in well-connected areas. The RUE in particular can enable the region and its municipalities to bind permitting for housing construction to demographic trends.
Deploying incentives and mechanisms to reduce and manage vacant properties
In lieu of the capacity to directly tax vacant property, Campania can combine policy incentives and deterrents to encourage property owners to make use of empty homes or repurpose land unfit for use, such as public grants, subsidised loans, streamlined permitting and technical support for renovation or demolition, and acquiring vacant properties and managing rehabilitation directly. Campania could also explore methods to encourage municipalities to tax vacant properties directly.
Campania can establish a land bank to obtain unused property and integrating it into rehabilitation programmes for strategic redevelopment. The region could also provide administrative and financial support and incentives to municipalities and private owners for acquisition, demolition and renovation of vacant properties through ACER or PRUACS. ACER could also be used to facilitate renovations and rental agreements related to these properties. Such investments could also be tied in part to Objective 2.1 of ERDF POR 2021-2027 related to promoting energy efficiency where appropriate.
Boosting provision of affordable and social housing
The region can assess the impact of various funding sources being used to promote urban regeneration and housing development in relation to demographic trends and projections, and reassess priorities and reallocate fundings accordingly. For instance, funding used to develop housing in declining rural areas that suffer from poor physical and digital connectivity might have a greater impact if invested in developing or rehabilitating dense housing in a better-connected service hub. Further administrative efficiencies can result from the digitalisation of applications for social housing and the distribution of rental support funds can also be explored, as well as an assessment of how these efforts have increased access to affordable housing in practice.
The region can also explore how to combine these various funding sources with others, including EU Cohesion Policy and European Structural Funds, as well as proceeds from LVC instruments, to maximise impact and achieve economies of scale. In-kind and monetary contributions obtained through LVC instruments, such as density bonuses, developer obligations, or infrastructure levies, can be reinvested in affordable and social housing, infrastructure and services in less developed areas. Properties generated through renovation and new development following demolition could be utilised for affordable and social housing purposes as well. In the short to medium term, Cohesion Policy investments could be utilised to repurpose vacant properties and land towards more relevant uses, such as public service centres and social and affordable housing, in line with Objectives 4 (to increase access to housing) and 5 (as part of local housing strategies), as well as Action 4.3.1 of ERDF ROP 2021-2027. To increase its impact, the region could also consider taking a more proactive role in urban regeneration, housing renovation and construction, as in Castilla y León, Spain (Box 3.10).
The region of Castilla y León in Spain is using housing policies to promote more rational land use relative to demographic challenges through its REHABITARE and TUYA programmes. Both aim to make better use of existing housing stock, particularly in rural areas affected by depopulation. REHABITARE focuses on the rehabilitation of unused municipal properties for affordable rental housing, while TUYA targets young people through various measures, including construction of social housing suitable for young people and families.
The REHABITARE programme is designed to expand the stock of public social rental housing and support repopulation in rural areas by restoring unused municipally owned properties. These often include old schools, doctors’ houses, rectories, and other publicly owned buildings that are well-located but deteriorating. The programme targets specially protected groups, particularly young people under 36, and seeks to limit new development by reusing existing assets. By optimising municipal resources and revitalising traditional rural spaces, REHABITARE supports strategic density, helps maintain local services, and provides affordable housing to attract working-age residents. Since 2016, and in partnership with provincial governments and religious institutions, REHABITARE has rehabilitated 449 properties with an investment of EUR 21.23 million, with plans to refurbish an additional 294 homes at an estimated cost of EUR 26 million.
The TUYA programme aims to construct over 1 200 cohousing units across the region, offering more affordable rental options that are attractive for the specific needs of young people, for example, in terms of connectivity to jobs or education, with a particular focus on rural areas. The success of TUYA depends on the active participation of municipalities, which are responsible for identifying land, updating urban plans, and collaborating with the regional government. Results vary by locality, reflecting differences in municipal capacity and priorities.
Source: (Valladolid Plural, 2024[36]); (Europa Press, 2024[37]); OECD interview.
Promoting inter-municipal spatial planning to optimise service provision and resource allocation
Developing formal inter-municipal planning instruments to support small municipalities
Considering the limited adoption of voluntary participatory planning agreements envisaged by Law 5/2024 and the capacity limitations faced by many small municipalities, Campania intends to take a more proactive role in promoting and coordinating inter-municipal planning through the PIV-Masterplans. These efforts are linked to Objective 5 of the EU Cohesion Policy (a Europe closer to citizens), as well as to actions related to strengthening the administrative capacity of local public actors as per Objectives 5.1 and 5.2 of the POR FESR 2021-2027. Increased support for inter-municipal planning would be particularly relevant for ROP Action 5.1.1 aimed at creating local service centres with populations over 30 000. Increased access to services through polycentrism in the more stable population centres of rural areas could help retain local young talent.
To address delayed adoption of PUCs, the region could introduce a mix of increased financial and procedural incentives, such as higher co-financing rates, and targeted technical assistance. It could also condition access to specific EU-funded project calls based on participation in planning agreements, and direct EU Cohesion Policy funds to investment proposals backed by inter-municipal spatial plans. These measures could be incorporated during the 2025 mid-term review of the ERDF ROP 2021-2027.MasterplanIn addition, Provincial Territorial Co-ordination Plans may help co-ordinate land-use decisions across municipalities within a province, but facilitating inter-municipal co-ordination across provincial lines could prove helpful to ensure that low-density development is not amassing just outside the boundaries of PTCPs, as appears to be case outside the Metropolitan City of Naples (Figure 3.6). Public funds could support urban regeneration and other service centre support investment conditional on effective implementation of the coordination mechanisms service centres require.
Cohesion Policy funds could be directed to investment proposals that are backed by inter-municipal spatial plans, thereby encouraging the development of PUCs. Campania could also raise the threshold for financial assistance offered to municipalities to update urban plans to attract larger towns and service centres to participate. Research suggests that IMC involving towns of 20 000 with greater administrative capacity are often more effective (Barone et al., 2023[38]).
Assuming a more active role in joint planning at the regional level
To increase use of joint planning agreements, the regional government could take a more active role in shepherding municipalities through the process, as it has done in successful Masterplans covering rural areas (Box 3.5). This could include establishing a dedicated support unit, offering standardised legal and technical toolkits, and co-financing PUC updates contingent on inter-municipal co-operation. Pilot projects could be launched in shrinking areas with shared service needs, and best practices from Masterplans covering rural areas could be emulated. Strengthening the region’s role would help align local spatial plans with regional development priorities and could facilitate increased access to EU Cohesion Policy funding under Cohesion Policy Objective 5 (a Europe closer to its citizens).
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← 1. The five TL3 regions in Campania are the provinces of Avellino, Benevento, Caserta, and Salerno, and the Metropolitan City of Naples.