POLIS | Short-term rentals and housing financialisation. Evidence and policy innovation

Summary
The success of digital platforms such as Airbnb and the subsequent proliferation of short-term rentals in cities have caused many challenges for local authorities, especially regarding the regulation and mitigation of their social impacts. Current attempts to regulate short-term rentals assume that Airbnb and similar providers are part of the so-called ‘sharing economy’ in which hosts would occasionally share their homes with visitors. However, there is increased evidence that short-term rentals have become professionalised, and that individual and corporate investors have started to channel substantial investment into this market. In this regard, POLIS explores the links between short-term rentals and housing financialisation and, in doing so, will provide innovative understandings of the Airbnb-led restructuring of local housing markets. POLIS draws on the principles of evidence-based policy making with the aim of advancing policy innovation for the regulation of this emerging economic sector. In particular, POLIS will address three research objectives: it will (i) examine the professionalisation of the short-term rental market; (ii) investigate to what extent Airbnb channels financial investment into the housing market; (iii) elaborate alternative policy proposals for positive change. POLIS is a gender-sensitive project and has an intrinsic gender dimension in all phases of the research. The project will explore the cases of two European cities: Lisbon and Leipzig. It will provide comparative insights into a topic that has proved to be of significant political, economic and spatial relevance. Research objectives will be addressed using a mixed-method design that collects and analyses data from a variety of sources, especially in-depth interviews and critical policy analysis. With short-term rentals on the agendas of local authorities in different contexts, the POLIS project will produce high quality transferable outcomes for other EU cities and beyond.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/891785
Start date: 01-06-2021
End date: 31-05-2023
Total budget - Public funding: 212 933,76 Euro - 212 933,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

The success of digital platforms such as Airbnb and the subsequent proliferation of short-term rentals in cities have caused many challenges for local authorities, especially regarding the regulation and mitigation of their social impacts. Current attempts to regulate short-term rentals assume that Airbnb and similar providers are part of the so-called ‘sharing economy’ in which hosts would occasionally share their homes with visitors. However, there is increased evidence that short-term rentals have become professionalised, and that individual and corporate investors have started to channel substantial investment into this market. In this regard, POLIS explores the links between short-term rentals and housing financialisation and, in doing so, will provide innovative understandings of the Airbnb-led restructuring of local housing markets. POLIS draws on the principles of evidence-based policy making with the aim of advancing policy innovation for the regulation of this emerging economic sector. In particular, POLIS will address three research objectives: it will (i) examine the professionalisation of the short-term rental market; (ii) investigate to what extent Airbnb channels financial investment into the housing market; (iii) elaborate alternative policy proposals for positive change. POLIS is a gender-sensitive project and has an intrinsic gender dimension in all phases of the research. The project will explore the cases of two European cities: Lisbon and Leipzig. It will provide comparative insights into a topic that has proved to be of significant political, economic and spatial relevance. Research objectives will be addressed using a mixed-method design that collects and analyses data from a variety of sources, especially in-depth interviews and critical policy analysis. With short-term rentals on the agendas of local authorities in different contexts, the POLIS project will produce high quality transferable outcomes for other EU cities and beyond.

Status

CLOSED

Call topic

MSCA-IF-2019

Update Date

28-04-2024
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.1. EXCELLENT SCIENCE
H2020-EU.1.3. EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
H2020-EU.1.3.2. Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
MSCA-IF-2019