Do short-term rental platforms affect housing markets? Evidence from Airbnb in Barcelona

Miquel-Àngel Garcia-López, Jordi Jofre-Monseny, Rodrigo Martínez-Mazza and Mariona Segú

Journal of Urban Economics, 2020, vol. 119, issue C

Abstract: In this paper, we assess the impact of Airbnb on housing rents and prices in the city of Barcelona. Examining very detailed data on rents and both transaction and posted prices, we use several econometric approaches that exploit the exact timing and geography of Airbnb activity in the city. These include i) panel fixed-effects models, where we run multiple specifications that allow for different forms of heterogeneous time trends across neighborhoods, ii) an instrumental variables shift-share approach in which tourist amenities predict where Airbnb listings will locate and Google searches predict when listings appear, iii) event-study designs, and iv) finally, we present evidence from Sagrada Familia, a major tourist amenity that is not found in the city centre. Our main results imply that for the average neighborhood, Airbnb activity has increased rents by 1.9%, transaction prices by 4.6% and posted prices by 3.7%. The estimated impact in neighborhoods with high Airbnb activity is substantial. For neighborhoods in the top decile of Airbnb activity distribution, rents are estimated to have increased by 7%, while increases in transaction (posted) prices are estimated at 17% (14%).

Keywords: Housing markets; Short-term rentals; Airbnb (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R10 R20 R31 Z30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

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Working Paper: Do short-term rental platforms affect housing markets? Evidence from Airbnb in Barcelona (2020)
Working Paper: Do short-term rental platforms affect housing markets? Evidence from Airbnb in Barcelona (2020)
Working Paper: Do short-term rental platforms affect housing markets? Evidence from Airbnb in Barcelona (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:119:y:2020:i:c:s0094119020300498

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2020.103278

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