Short-term rentals and long-term residence in Amsterdam and Barcelona: A comparative outlook

The aim of this study is to estimate the effects of tourism growth on residential stability in two cities: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Barcelona, Spain. Our focus is on short-term rentals advertised on Airbnb, which have been used to compute a measure of pressure on the available housing stock over a period of three years (2017-2019). The hypothesis was made that this measure would correlate with the average duration of residence in Amsterdam, and with the percentage of long-term residents in Barcelona, after controlling for rent and house prices, and demographic trends. Fixed effects panel regression models, with area and time-specific intercepts, are used to test the hypothesis. We found that negative externalities of Airbnb for residential stability are consistent in both cities, although these are mostly associated with a rent increase in Amsterdam, as opposed to rising property values in Barcelona. These results largely reflect the structural differences in tenure regimes and housing policies between the two case studies. More importantly, however, they point to a process of progressive social disinvestment in tourism destinations fuelled by the departure of long-term residents. The implications of our findings for urban policies in a post-pandemic scenario are discussed.