Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper considers the linkages between the home-sharing platform Airbnb and the housing crisis in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA), in Ireland. This area is in the midst of a housing crisis, with a significant undersupply of housing units and rising unaffordability, especially the city of Dublin. While the sharing economy, better exemplified here by Airbnb, has become a major part of the global economy, it is less clear what is the regional impact of Airbnb, an online platform that allows people rent out part or all of their home for short stays. Among the claimed benefits for the tourism sector there are concerns that home sharing removes potential housing supply from the private rental sector to the short-term rental sector, which could aggravate the housing shortage. Along these lines, this paper documents this contemporary urban spatial issue, using rental asking prices data and data from Airbnb listings. The study does not intend to criticize the sharing platforms themselves but rather their disruptive impact and the short-term rental market within a digital economy context more widely. It is found that whilst not the only factor for the current housing crisis in Greater Dublin, Airbnb’s presence in the short-term housing is a vivid element of the current housing crisis in the country, which poses challenges for regulators and home seekers.
Highlights
In the housing area, the concept of a disruptive economy encompasses the idea of how technology contributes to the disruption of the basis of supply and demand for housing in low-supply areas
Some literature downplays the impact of sharing economy companies by concluding that companies such as Airbnb hardly create any disruption in the hotel and housing industry (Snelling, Colebrook, & Murphy, 2016; Varma, Jukic, Pestek, Shultz, & Nestorov, 2016) by attracting visitors away from conventional accommodation
Rent pressure zones (RPZ) were designed in areas where rent is above the national average and rising quickly, and all counties in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) have areas designated in the RPZ geographical range
Summary
The concept of a disruptive economy encompasses the idea of how technology contributes to the disruption of the basis of supply and demand for housing in low-supply areas. The rise of Airbnb and other peer-to-peer short-term rental services within the sharing economy represents a transformative innovation that may have a significant impact on urban environments, as they disrupt traditional forms of hospitality, service industry and housing markets (Ferreri & Sanyal, 2018). Airbnb Airbnb provides an online accommodation platform connecting tourists and local homeowners, potentially affecting the hotel market (Garau-Vadell, Gutiérrez-Taño, & Díaz-Armas, 2018) and, more recently, the housing market (Barron et al, 2018; Lee, 2016). It has expanded globally, raising substantial planning and regulatory concerns. The company maintains that guests impose no additional burdens on neighbours and communities while bringing new income to local hosts and businesses (Gurran & Phibbs, 2017; Khadem, 2016)
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