The short-let market in Sardinia, with the Region's own figures

In 2025 Sardinia recorded around 21.9 million overnight stays and more than 5 million arrivals, growing 32.5% in arrivals and 39.1% in overnight stays: the fastest growing region in Italy. In the first half of 2026 overnight stays rose a further 8.24%, and foreign visitors 11.4%. These are figures from the Tourism Observatory of the Sardinia Region, not ours, and anyone can check them.

This page does one thing: it gives you the context your house sits in, with sources you can verify. You will not find yields by location here, and there is a reason we explain below.

The numbers, in one table

Why you will not find a yield by location here

Because it would be a false number, and it would still be false if we took it from our own properties. Two houses on the same street close the year with different revenue: the real distance from the sea changes, the genuine number of beds, the parking, the outdoor space, the length of the usable season, the photographs and the starting price.

Regional data says one thing, and says it well: demand exists and is growing. That is the condition for a house to work, not a guarantee that yours will. If you want the method for reaching a number on your own house, we wrote it in the guide on what a holiday home in Sardinia really earns.

The growth in foreign visitors is the figure that matters most

In the first half of 2026 foreign visitors grew 11.4%, faster than the average. For an owner it is the most interesting number in the table, for two concrete reasons.

The first is the season. Foreign guests tend to book earlier and travel in June and September too, when Italian demand concentrates on August. That means a longer calendar, which is the real multiplier: a house that works four months instead of two does not double its revenue, it changes category.

The second is length of stay. People coming from further away stay longer, and long stays cost less to run per night: fewer changeovers, fewer cleans, fewer check-ins. At the same nightly rate, the net result is different.

The practical consequence is that a house presented only in Italian, on Italian-only channels, is leaving out the part of demand that is growing fastest.

Where the stays concentrate, and why knowing that is not enough

Gallura is by far the leading area by volume, with roughly 7.7 million overnight stays: it covers Olbia, the Costa Smeralda, Golfo Aranci and the arc up to Palau. Among individual towns, Alghero leads the island with around 1.8 million.

But concentration on its own tells half the truth. Where there are more visitors there are also more houses, and what matters to an owner is the ratio between the two in their own area. An area with fewer tourists and far fewer houses can work better than a saturated one.

How to read the data for your own area, in practice

You cross two public sources, and it takes half an hour.

One: the stays. The Region's Observatory publishes reports and open data broken down by province and by municipality. The overnight-stay figure for your town is public. Look at the series across several years, not the latest one: what matters is the direction.

Two: the supply. ISTAT, through its survey on accommodation capacity, publishes the number of establishments and beds for each municipality, updated every year. That is the other half of the question.

If stays are growing faster than beds, your area is improving for anyone letting. If the opposite is true, competition is rising and the price will have to work harder. It is not an exact science, but it beats a hunch, and it is a calculation you can redo yourself every year without asking anyone.

Rates: go and look, they are public

There is a third check almost nobody does and it costs ten minutes: open the portals and look at what houses like yours, on your street, are asking for the weeks you care about. Published rates are public by definition.

Two warnings so you do not fool yourself. First: the published rate is not the rate achieved, because you cannot tell how much of that calendar is actually sold. Second: look at distant dates, not next weekend, because last-minute prices tell a different story. This gives you an order of magnitude, not a quote.

What to do with these numbers, if you own a house

If you are deciding whether to let, public data is enough: demand is growing, growing faster than in any other Italian region, and growing above all from abroad. The answer to the first question is yes, it is worth looking at.

If you are deciding how much, it is not enough and no regional figure ever will be. For that you need real comparables from your micro-area and a calculation done net of costs, not gross. If you want that document, ask for the free analysis: it stays yours even if you decide to manage on your own, and it lets you compare anyone.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure on this page comes from public, verifiable sources: the Tourism, Craft and Trade Observatory of the Sardinia Region for stays, arrivals, average length of stay and territorial distribution, and ISTAT for accommodation capacity by municipality. We did not use data from our own portfolio, and that is deliberate: a number the reader can check is worth more than a number they have to believe. The 2025 and first-half-2026 figures are those available in August 2026 and are updated by the Region during the year.

Last updated in August 2026. We review figures, rules and references periodically; before making tax or operational decisions, check the linked sources and your circumstances with a qualified adviser.

Want to know what these numbers mean for your house? Ask for the free analysis: we start from the comparables in your area and work through to the net. The owners page explains how we work.