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

le Lundi 23 Novembre 2020 à de 11h30 à 12h30, par visioconférence uniquement

Présenté par : Mariona Segú (Ined) ; Discutant : Guillaume Le Roux (Ined)

In this paper, we assess the impact of the arrival and expansion of Airbnb on housing rents and prices in the city of Barcelona. Examining highly 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 with neighborhood-specific time trends, ii) an instrumental variable shift-share approach in which tourist amenities predict where Airbnb listings will locate and Google searches predict when listings appear, and iii) event-study designs. For the average neighborhood in terms of Airbnb activity, our preferred results imply that rents have increased by 1.9%, while transaction (posted) prices have increased by 5.3% (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 19% (14%).

Mariona Segú

Mariona Segú is currently a Post-doc researcher at INED working on the ANR project WORKLIFE. She is an Economics PhD graduate from Université Paris-Saclay and RITM, under the supervision of Pr. Gabrielle Fack and Pr. Miren Lafourcade.

Her main research fields are Urban Economics, Housing Economics and Public Policy. Currently, she is also working on the field of Environmental Economics. She is interested in understanding housing markets, the structure and development of cities and the role played by public authorities. Her recent research projects have addressed the tax on vacant apartments, the entry of Airbnb in the housing market, capitalisation of property taxes and the relationship between air traffic and the housing market. Her on-going projects focus on the development of bike-lanes networks and zero-interest green loans.