All things you need to know about living in Otranto
Otranto, in the province of Lecce, is home to 6 French nationals: 0.11% of its 5,566 residents.
That is the 597th-highest concentration of French nationals among the 5,872 Italian comuni with at least 1,000 residents.
Within Puglia it ranks 2nd.
ISTAT counts 258 residents with a foreign citizenship in Otranto, 4.64% of the population. The largest groups among the nationalities we follow most closely are French nationals (6), Argentinians (5), Germans (5).
Otranto qualifies for the 7% pensioner regime.
On ISTAT's well-being measures, the province of Lecce scores in the top quarter of Italian provinces for intentional homicide rate and hospital beds in high-care wards.
It scores in the bottom quarter for urban green and overall Fixed Very High Capacity Network (VHCN) coverage.
These figures describe the province, not the town. A comune can sit some way from its province's average.
Summers average a high of 32.2°C (90°F) and winters a low of 8.0°C (46°F), measured over 2015 to 2024.
Otranto sees about 66 days a year above 30°C (86°F).
It gets about 672mm of rain a year, spread across roughly 93 days.
These come from ERA5-Land reanalysis at the comune itself, not from the nearest weather station.
OMI puts residential purchase prices in Otranto at about €1,770 per square meter in the second half of 2025.
Otranto population over time
By nationality
| Nationality | Citizens | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | 78 | 1.40% |
| Albania | 23 | 0.41% |
| Poland | 7 | 0.13% |
| France | 6 | 0.11% |
| Argentina | 5 | 0.09% |
| Germany | 5 | 0.09% |
| United Kingdom | 4 | 0.07% |
| Switzerland | 3 | 0.05% |
| Spain | 3 | 0.05% |
| Ukraine | 3 | 0.05% |
| United States | 3 | 0.05% |
| Bulgaria | 2 | 0.04% |
| Brazil | 2 | 0.04% |
| Croatia | 2 | 0.04% |
| Netherlands | 2 | 0.04% |
| Portugal | 2 | 0.04% |
| Belgium | 1 | 0.02% |
| Canada | 1 | 0.02% |
| Czechia | 1 | 0.02% |
| Russia | 1 | 0.02% |
| Austria | 0 | 0.00% |
| Australia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Cyprus | 0 | 0.00% |
| Denmark | 0 | 0.00% |
| Estonia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Finland | 0 | 0.00% |
| Greece | 0 | 0.00% |
| Hungary | 0 | 0.00% |
| Ireland | 0 | 0.00% |
| Japan | 0 | 0.00% |
| South Korea | 0 | 0.00% |
| Lithuania | 0 | 0.00% |
| Luxembourg | 0 | 0.00% |
| Latvia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Malta | 0 | 0.00% |
| Mexico | 0 | 0.00% |
| Norway | 0 | 0.00% |
| Sweden | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovenia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovakia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Venezuela | 0 | 0.00% |
Country of birth
| Group | Residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Born in Italy | 5,123 | 92.04% |
| Born elsewhere in the EU | 166 | 2.98% |
| Born outside the EU | 277 | 4.98% |
French nationals over time
Quality of life in Lecce
Full BES profile for Lecce →Lecce on cost vs quality of life (province-level) →
Tax regimes
Otranto qualifies for the 7% pensioner regime. Comfortably below the 30,000-resident ceiling.
Qualifying is about the town. Whether it applies to you depends on criteria no map can check — where you were tax-resident before, and where your income comes from.
How the 7% pensioner regime works, and every qualifying comune →Property prices
Buying in Otranto is far above the Lecce average of €739/m². Averaged across 5 OMI micro-zones, which can differ substantially within the same town.
20.8 years of rent here equal the purchase price, close to the national median of 22.2 years.
A ratio between two OMI prices, not a return on investment. It leaves out purchase taxes, IMU, maintenance, financing and the months a place sits empty — all of which push the real figure up. Useful for the question it does answer: whether this town looks expensive to buy relative to what renting in it costs.
Housing here in excellent condition costs 33% more than ordinary condition — €2,359/m² against €1,770.
That gap is what the market charges for a place you don’t have to work on. It is not what the work would cost you — OMI prices property, not builders.
A detached house here averages €2,088/m², against €1,770 for an apartment.
Compared street for street — houses and flats priced in the same neighborhood — a house costs 26% more per square meter.
OMI prices “Ville e Villini” separately from the apartments every other figure on this page describes. Nationally a house costs about 14% more per square meter, but in 450 comuni it costs less — worth checking rather than assuming.
Seismic zone
Otranto is in seismic zone 4. Of the four zones, zone 1 is the highest hazard and zone 4 the lowest. The Department of Civil Protection describes zone 4 as the lowest-hazard zone, where a strong earthquake is very unlikely.
This is the legal classification the Region gave the comune, used for planning and for control of building works. It is not a forecast, and it says nothing about the building you are looking at: since the 2018 building code the design load of a new building comes from site-specific hazard, not from the zone. Have any specific property checked by a qualified engineer.
Not to be confused with the “seismic” routes of the 7% pensioner regime. Those turn on whether the comune was in the 2009 L’Aquila or 2016–17 central-Italy earthquake areas, not on its zone, and being in zone 1 does not make anyone eligible for that regime, or for any tax treatment.
See every comune on the map →Hospital, airport and daily-needs distance
Nearest hospital: Ospedale Scorrano, about 20.4 km / 17 minutes by road from Otranto (the main town).
Nearest emergency department: Ospedale Scorrano (DEA level I), about 20.4 km / 17 minutes by road from Otranto (the main town).
Nearest airport: Brindisi Airport (BDS), about 95.6 km / 66 minutes by road from Otranto (the main town).
Nearest supermarket (OpenStreetMap): Supermarket, about 0.6 km / 1 minute by road from Otranto (the main town).
Nearest pharmacy: Farmacia Ricciardi Nicola, about 0.7 km / 1 minute by road from Otranto (the main town).
Nearest railway station (OpenStreetMap): Otranto, about 1.2 km / 2 minutes by road from Otranto (the main town).
Measured by road from the main town of the comune (its OpenStreetMap place point; the geographic center for the few comuni with none), at free-flow speeds with no traffic. It is approximate. For Otranto, a trip from your own address can take longer or shorter. Drive the route before you rely on it, and ask the local health authority which hospital serves the town. Shops, pharmacies and stations are the nearest to the main town, not to your address.
Nearby comuni
← See Otranto on the interactive map
This page, as data
Every figure above sits behind the page as a value with its source, its date and its coverage attached. Your assistant reads the same record, gaps included.