Housing: hill, sea, old centre, outskirts

Neighbourhoods by profile

Chiaia, Posillipo, Mergellina: seafront, elegant buildings, the highest prices in the city; Posillipo is hilly and scenic but poorly served by public transport. Vomero and Arenella: bourgeois hill districts, shopping on via Scarlatti, linked to the centre by three funiculars and metro Line 1; much sought after by families and professionals.

Old centre (Decumani, Quartieri Spagnoli, Sanità, Materdei, Montesanto): historic buildings, alleys, strong identity, noise and density; short-term rentals have replaced many residential contracts. Sanità and Materdei are changing through cultural and social projects.

Fuorigrotta, Soccavo, Bagnoli: western districts with modern, large flats, the Monte Sant'Angelo university campus, the stadium and the former Bagnoli steelworks, subject to a decades-long clean-up. They fall within the Campi Flegrei red zone.

Eastern and northern zones: San Giovanni a Teduccio hosts the Federico II engineering campus and the Apple Developer Academy; Barra and Ponticelli are working-class; Scampia and Secondigliano to the north have the highest concentration of public housing.

The Vele of Scampia

The Vele are the large stepped blocks built in Scampia in the 1960s and 1970s as public housing: seven originally, which became the symbol of urban decay and of the abandonment of the planned services. Three were demolished between 1997 and 2003 and a fourth in 2020, within a regeneration programme that foresees demolishing the remaining ones and new homes for residents. In July 2024 the collapse of a walkway in the Vela Celeste killed three people and led to the building's evacuation. The area also hosts Federico II's Scampia campus (health professions), opened in 2022.

Public housing and student housing

Regional public housing is managed by ACER Campania (which absorbed the former IACP agencies), while the Comune di Napoli manages its own stock and the allocation waiting lists, with periodic calls based on residence, income and family conditions. ADISURC, the regional right-to-study agency, allocates beds in university residences through an annual call by income and merit. The private student room market is concentrated in the historic centre (University/Mezzocannone area, Materdei, Montesanto) and in Fuorigrotta.