What research has measured about short-term rentals and housing
Headline estimates from peer-reviewed and working-paper studies of short-term rentals and rents, house prices, housing supply, hotels and regulation, as their authors state them.
What this page covers
A 1% increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.018% increase in rents and a 0.026% increase in house prices in the US zip code with the median owner-occupancy rate, according to a nationwide study by Kyle Barron, Edward Kung and Davide Proserpio in the journal Marketing Science1. It is one of the studies collected on this page, each of which measured an effect of short-term rentals on rents, house prices, housing supply, hotels or neighbourhoods, or the effect of rules that limit them.
Most of the studies were published in peer-reviewed journals. The New York City study by Sophie Calder-Wang is cited in its working-paper version5. Each estimate is given as the authors state it in the abstract or text of the paper, with the place and period studied, the method in one sentence and the limits the authors name. Where the published text could not be read, the headline estimate comes from the published abstract or the authors’ manuscript, and each source is named as such.
The page gives no verdict of its own. The estimates use different units, so they are listed side by side and never combined. Some are elasticities: the percentage change in rents or prices for each percentage change in listings. Others are effects per additional listing, per percentage point of Airbnb share, per standard deviation of listings, or the measured effect of a specific rule.
| Study | Place and period | Finding as stated | Read at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barron, Kung and Proserpio (Marketing Science, 2021) | United States, zip codes; listings 2012 to end of 2016 | 1% more Airbnb listings: rents up 0.018% and house prices up 0.026% at the median owner-occupancy zip code; total housing supply not affected | Journal abstract; 2019 working paper |
| Horn and Merante (Journal of Housing Economics, 2017) | Boston neighbourhoods | One standard deviation more Airbnb listings: asking rents up 0.4% | Abstract on IDEAS/RePEc |
| Garcia-López, Jofre-Monseny, Martínez-Mazza and Segú (Journal of Urban Economics, 2020) | Barcelona, 221 small areas; ads 2007–2017, sales 2009–2017 | Average neighbourhood: rents up 1.9%, transaction prices up 4.6%, posted prices up 3.7%; top decile: rents up 7%, transaction prices up 17%, posted prices up 14% | Published article, University of Barcelona repository |
| Franco and Santos (Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2021) | Portugal; Lisbon and Porto civil parishes | 1 percentage point more Airbnb share: house prices up 3.7% (municipalities) and 3.2% (Lisbon and Porto parishes) | Abstract on IDEAS/RePEc |
| Calder-Wang (working paper, December 2021) | New York City excluding Staten Island; 2018 listings | Renters’ welfare loss of $2.4 billion; 0.68% of rental stock reallocated; overall rent change of 0.71% if returned | Working paper #841, Wharton |
| Duso, Michelsen, Schaefer and Tran (Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2024) | Berlin; rules of May 2016 and August 2018; listings data May 2014 to May 2020 (working paper) | Each additional commercial listing displaces 0.23 to 0.37 rental units and raises rent per square metre by 1.3% to 2.4% | Abstract, University of Bristol; CESifo working paper |
| Koster, van Ommeren and Volkhausen (Journal of Urban Economics, 2021) | Los Angeles County, 18 of 88 cities with Home Sharing Ordinances | Ordinances: listings down 50%, housing prices down 2%, rents down 2% | Abstract, VU Amsterdam research portal |
| Valentin (Real Estate Economics, 2021) | New Orleans | Property values down approximately 30% where rules were tightest; more short-term renting in adjacent neighbourhoods | Abstract on IDEAS/RePEc |
| Chen, Wei and Xie (Management Science, 2022) | Cities where Airbnb capped properties per host | Rents and home values down about 3%; price-to-rent ratio unchanged | Abstract on IDEAS/RePEc |
| Bekkerman, Cohen, Kung, Maiden and Proserpio (Marketing Science, 2023) | Jurisdictions with and without short-term rental regulations | First 12 months of a regulation: listings down 9.0%, residential permits down 11.0%; accessory dwelling units down 16.5% across boundaries | Journal abstract |
| Farronato and Fradkin (American Economic Review, 2022) | 50 largest US cities, 2011 to 2015; welfare for the 10 largest in 2014 | Hotels: revenues down 1.6%, variable profits down up to 2.8%; consumer surplus $305 million, host surplus $112 million | AEA abstract; manuscript in AER format |
Findings paraphrased from each study with its figures exactly as published. Units differ between studies, so the figures are not comparable with one another. A place or period is left out where the abstract that could be read does not state it.
Source: INFORMS, Marketing Science (journal abstract page, archived copy), The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (working-paper version), Journal of Urban Economics (Elsevier); published version in the Universitat de Barcelona repository, CC BY, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam research portal (journal abstract), The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (real estate working paper #841), American Economic Association, National Bureau of Economic Research (2022 conference paper in American Economic Review format), University of Bristol research portal (journal abstract), CESifo Working Paper No. 9089, via EconStor, Regional Science and Urban Economics (Elsevier), abstract on IDEAS/RePEc, Real Estate Economics, abstract on IDEAS/RePEc, Journal of Housing Economics (Elsevier), abstract on IDEAS/RePEc, Management Science (INFORMS), abstract on IDEAS/RePEc1234567891011121314
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This table was compiled by Booked News and may be reused with credit and a link (CC BY 4.0). The figures themselves belong to the bodies that published them, named in the sources.
Rents and house prices
United States. Barron, Kung and Proserpio combined Airbnb listings collected from the site’s public pages between 2012 and the end of 2016 with Zillow’s zip-code indices of house values and rents2. To separate cause from coincidence, they used an instrument that interacts worldwide Google searches for “airbnb” with a measure of how touristy each zip code is2. At the median owner-occupancy rate, a 1% increase in listings leads to a 0.018% increase in rents and a 0.026% increase in house prices1. Applied to median annual Airbnb growth, this translates to an annual increase of $9 in monthly rent and $1,800 in house prices for the median zip code in their data, which the authors put at about one-fifth of actual rent growth and about one-seventh of actual price growth1. The effect is stronger in zip codes with fewer owner-occupiers, which the authors read as owners who do not live in their homes moving them from long-term to short-term renting1.
Boston. Keren Horn and Mark Merante studied the short-term effects of Airbnb’s growth on the rental market in Boston neighbourhoods, using individual rental listings13. A one standard deviation increase in Airbnb listings is associated with an increase in asking rents of 0.4%13.
Barcelona. Miquel-Àngel Garcia-López, Jordi Jofre-Monseny, Rodrigo Martínez-Mazza and Mariona Segú used rental and sale ads on the Idealista website that were active each December from 2007 to 2017, and the universe of second-hand flat sales from 2009 to 2017, grouped into 221 small areas of the city3. Their methods include panel fixed-effects models, an instrument in which tourist amenities predict where listings appear and Google searches predict when, and event studies3. For the average neighbourhood, Airbnb activity increased rents by 1.9%, transaction prices by 4.6% and posted prices by 3.7%3.
Portugal. Sofia Franco and Carlos Daniel Santos find that, on average, a 1 percentage point increase in a municipality’s Airbnb share results in a 3.7% increase in house prices11. In Lisbon and Porto, a 1 percentage point increase in a civil parish’s Airbnb share leads to a 3.2% price increase11.
Berlin. Tomaso Duso, Claus Michelsen, Maximilian Schaefer and Kevin Tran estimate that each additional commercial Airbnb listing increases rent per square metre by 1.3% to 2.4%9.
New York City. Calder-Wang built a structural model in which absentee landlords can move homes between long-term and short-term renting and residents can host visitors in their own homes5. In the model, returning all homes reallocated to Airbnb to the long-term market changes overall rent by 0.71%5. The average renter loses $138 a year through higher rents and the median renter $1285. Summed across renters, she puts the transfer to property owners at $200mm a year, or $2.7bn in net present value terms, and the surplus residents earn from hosting at $300mm in net present value terms5. Her abstract gives the net result as a welfare loss of $2.4 billion for New York City renters, with losses from increased rents larger than gains from hosting5.
Housing supply
Several of the authors explain the rent and price effects as homes moving out of long-term renting135. Barron, Kung and Proserpio tested this directly. They find that the total supply of housing is not affected by Airbnb’s entry, while Airbnb listings increase the supply of short-term rental units and decrease the supply of long-term rental units1.
In Berlin, Duso and co-authors estimate that each additional commercial Airbnb listing displaces 0.23 to 0.37 rental units9. In New York, Calder-Wang classes entire homes available on Airbnb for over 180 days in 2018 as reallocated from long-term renting; they average 0.68% of the rental housing stock5.
Construction is the other side of supply. Ron Bekkerman, Maxime Cohen, Edward Kung, John Maiden and Davide Proserpio compared listings and building permits before and after local short-term rental regulations, and across the boundaries between jurisdictions with and without them6. Over the first 12 months after a regulation starts, Airbnb listings fall by 9.0% and residential permits by 11.0%6. Permits for accessory dwelling units decline by 16.5% across regulatory boundaries6. The authors conclude that short-term rentals encourage residential investment, especially in housing units well suited to short-term renting6.
Hotels
Chiara Farronato and Andrey Fradkin modelled competition between flexible sellers, the Airbnb hosts, and dedicated sellers, the hotels, and estimated it with data from major US cities7. Their data combine proprietary Airbnb data with hotel data from Smith Travel Research for the 50 largest US cities between 2011 and 20158.
For the 10 largest US cities in 2014, they find that Airbnb generated $305 million in consumer surplus, or about $70 per Airbnb room-night booked, and $112 million in host surplus, or about $26 per room-night8. These gains came at the expense of hotels, which experienced a 1.6% decrease in revenues and a decrease in variable profits of up to 2.8%8.
The welfare gains are concentrated in places such as New York and at times such as New Year’s Eve, when hotel capacity is constrained, because hosts expand supply as hotels fill up and keep hotel prices down7. The authors estimate that host supply is three times as elastic as hotel supply, and that between 49% and 87% of nights booked on Airbnb would not have resulted in a hotel booking without Airbnb8.
An earlier hotel study is summarised by Barron, Kung and Proserpio: Zervas, Proserpio and Byers (2017) showed that hotel revenue dropped after Airbnb entered Texas, and that the effect was stronger in periods of peak demand2.
Neighbourhoods
City averages hide large differences between neighbourhoods. In Barcelona, rents in the top decile of Airbnb activity are estimated to have increased by 7%, while increases in transaction and posted prices are estimated at 17% and 14%3. In Lisbon and Porto, Franco and Santos find strong effects in the historic centres and areas attractive to tourists: compared with a low-tourism parish, house prices in a high-tourism parish increased by 24.3% in 2015 and 32.3% in the first quarter of 2016, relative to the period before Airbnb’s expansion, which they date to before the second quarter of 201411. In Los Angeles, Koster and co-authors’ estimates imply an increase in house prices of 15% within 2.5km of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame4.
Effects can cross boundaries. In New Orleans, Maxence Valentin finds that the ordinances he studied reduced participation in short-term renting as intended, while short-term rental use increased in the neighbourhoods next to the areas most affected by the rules12.
Who bears the cost differs too. In New York, Calder-Wang finds that the increased rent burden falls most heavily on high-income, educated and white renters, which she attributes mainly to the geography of Airbnb activity and to their preference for homes and neighbourhoods that visitors also want5. She also finds that the median host’s gain is immaterial, while a few low-income households gain substantially from hosting5.
Effects of regulation
Los Angeles County. Hans Koster, Jos van Ommeren and Nicolas Volkhausen studied the 18 out of 88 cities in Los Angeles County that severely restricted short-term rentals by adopting Home Sharing Ordinances4. Using a panel regression-discontinuity design around city borders, they find that the ordinances reduced listings by 50% and housing prices by 2%; difference-in-differences estimates show that the ordinances reduced rents also by 2%4.
New Orleans. Valentin finds that the regulations depressed property values in the neighbourhoods facing the tightest rules by approximately 30%, which he reads as homeowners pricing in the option to rent short-term12.
Berlin. In May 2016 a law came into force prohibiting the “misuse” of real estate property for short-term renting, and in August 2018 an amendment required hosts to publish a registration number obtainable only from the local council10. Duso and co-authors find that the first intervention, which affected commercial listings, significantly affected long-term rental markets, while the second, which mainly affected non-commercial listings, did not9. They conclude that regulation should target commercial listings9.
Many jurisdictions. Bekkerman and co-authors’ estimates of a 9.0% fall in listings and an 11.0% fall in residential permits are measured from the start dates of short-term rental regulations6.
A platform’s own cap. Wei Chen, Zaiyan Wei and Karen Xie studied an Airbnb policy that caps the number of properties a host can manage in a city14. They find that it reduced long-term rents and home values by about 3% and did not affect the price-to-rent ratio, and they attribute the effect to increased supply in local residential markets14. If the density of affected Airbnb properties is 1% higher in a market, the policy may further decrease rents and home values by about 0.03%–0.06%14.
Rules that were modelled. Farronato and Fradkin estimate that allowing Airbnb rooms to be booked just 90 days per year would recoup 49% of the consumer surplus loss from banning Airbnb outright8. Parity in lodging taxes between hosts and hotels would raise an additional $72 million in tax revenues while reducing consumer and host surplus by an amount equal to 23% of the loss from a ban8.
New York City. In her December 2021 paper, Calder-Wang expected enforcement of restrictions against Airbnb reallocation to reduce housing costs for all renters, especially higher-income and educated renters, while being welfare-reducing overall and leaving unaddressed the affordability problems created by housing supply constraints5. No peer-reviewed estimate of the effect of New York City’s Local Law 18 on rents was found for this page.
Where the studies agree and disagree
In the 2019 working-paper version of their study, Barron, Kung and Proserpio summarised the research to that point, their own included, as finding that home-sharing raises local rents by reallocating the housing stock, raises house prices, and brings small suppliers of short-term accommodation into competition with traditional suppliers2.
The authors read the size of the effect differently. Barron, Kung and Proserpio put their estimate at about one-fifth of actual rent growth in their median zip code1. Garcia-López and co-authors say the Barcelona effects on rents are not small, yet cannot explain the bulk of the high increases in rents the city experienced between 2012 and 20163. Calder-Wang notes that the median renter’s loss is only 25 basis points of annual income, while higher rents affect all 2.1 million renters in New York City5.
They also draw different policy conclusions from their own results. Duso and co-authors conclude that regulators should target commercial listings9. Farronato and Fradkin see value in rules that keep the benefits of host supply during peak demand8. Calder-Wang expects restrictions in New York to lower housing costs for renters and to reduce welfare overall5. Bekkerman and co-authors find that regulation also reduces residential building, especially of accessory dwelling units6. Garcia-López and co-authors say platforms such as Airbnb might worsen the housing affordability problem in cities like Barcelona, where tourism is popular and the difference in profitability between renting to residents and renting to tourists is high3.
On method, the authors name limits of their own designs. Barron, Kung and Proserpio note that their instrument estimates a local average effect for the zip codes it moves, which does not necessarily reflect the average effect of Airbnb on any zip code; that they do not observe the exact entry and exit of listings; and that they do not account for spillovers between neighbouring zip codes2. Farronato and Fradkin focus on short-run effects and leave the longer-run adjustment of hotel capacity and the housing stock to future work8.
Common questions
Do Airbnbs raise rents?
Each study on this page that measured rents links more short-term rental activity with higher rents, by different amounts. Barron, Kung and Proserpio find that a 1% increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.018% increase in rents in the US zip code with the median owner-occupancy rate1. In Barcelona, Airbnb activity raised rents by 1.9% in the average neighbourhood and an estimated 7% in the top decile of Airbnb activity3. In Boston, a one standard deviation increase in listings is associated with 0.4% higher asking rents13. The Barcelona authors add that Airbnb cannot explain the bulk of the city’s rent increases3.
Does short-term rental regulation lower rents?
Home Sharing Ordinances in Los Angeles County reduced listings by 50% and rents by 2%, according to Koster, van Ommeren and Volkhausen4. An Airbnb cap on the number of properties per host reduced rents and home values by about 3%14. In Berlin, a 2016 rule that affected commercial listings significantly affected long-term rental markets, while a 2018 rule that mainly affected non-commercial listings did not910. Regulation can also reduce new building: residential permits fell by 11.0% in the first 12 months6. No peer-reviewed estimate for New York City’s Local Law 18 was found for this page.
How do short-term rentals affect hotels?
Farronato and Fradkin estimate that in 2014 Airbnb generated $305 million in consumer surplus in the 10 largest US cities, at the expense of hotels, which experienced a 1.6% decrease in revenues and a decrease in variable profits of up to 2.8%8. The effect is concentrated where and when hotels are full, such as New York and New Year’s Eve, because hosts add supply as hotels fill up and keep hotel prices down7. They estimate that between 49% and 87% of nights booked on Airbnb would not have resulted in a hotel booking without Airbnb8.
Do short-term rentals reduce the housing supply?
Barron, Kung and Proserpio find that Airbnb does not change the total supply of housing in US zip codes, and that listings move units from long-term to short-term renting1. In Berlin, each additional commercial listing displaces 0.23 to 0.37 rental units9. In New York, Calder-Wang counts 0.68% of the rental housing stock as reallocated to Airbnb5. On new building, Bekkerman and co-authors find that short-term rental regulations reduced residential permits by 11.0% in their first 12 months, which they read as short-term rentals encouraging residential investment6.
Why do the estimates differ so much between studies?
The studies measure different things in different places and years. Some are elasticities, such as the 0.018% rise in rents for each 1% more listings in the median US zip code1. Others are per additional commercial listing in Berlin9, per percentage point of Airbnb share in Portugal11, per neighbourhood in Barcelona3 or the effect of a specific rule4. Methods range from instruments and border comparisons to structural models, and Barron, Kung and Proserpio note that their estimate does not necessarily reflect the average effect on every zip code2.
Sources
- INFORMS, Marketing Science (journal abstract page, archived copy), Barron, Kung and Proserpio, The Effect of Home-Sharing on House Prices and Rents: Evidence from Airbnb, Marketing Science 40(1):23-47 (2020-10-02). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (working-paper version), Barron, Kung and Proserpio, The Effect of Home-Sharing on House Prices and Rents: Evidence from Airbnb, working paper, 2019 (2019). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- Journal of Urban Economics (Elsevier); published version in the Universitat de Barcelona repository, CC BY, Garcia-López, Jofre-Monseny, Martínez-Mazza and Segú, Do short-term rental platforms affect housing markets? Evidence from Airbnb in Barcelona, Journal of Urban Economics 119, 103278 (2020). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam research portal (journal abstract), Koster, van Ommeren and Volkhausen, Short-term rentals and the housing market: Quasi-experimental evidence from Airbnb in Los Angeles, Journal of Urban Economics 124, 103356 (2021-07). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (real estate working paper #841), Calder-Wang, The Distributional Impact of the Sharing Economy: Evidence from New York City, December 20, 2021 (2021-12-20). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- INFORMS, Marketing Science (journal abstract page, archived copy), Bekkerman, Cohen, Kung, Maiden and Proserpio, The Effect of Short-Term Rentals on Residential Investment, Marketing Science 42(4):819-834 (2022-10-13). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- American Economic Association, Farronato and Fradkin, The Welfare Effects of Peer Entry: The Case of Airbnb and the Accommodation Industry, American Economic Review 112(6):1782-1817 (abstract) (2022-06). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- National Bureau of Economic Research (2022 conference paper in American Economic Review format), Farronato and Fradkin, The Welfare Effects of Peer Entry: The Case of Airbnb and the Accommodation Industry, full text (2022). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- University of Bristol research portal (journal abstract), Duso, Michelsen, Schaefer and Tran, Airbnb and rental markets: Evidence from Berlin, Regional Science and Urban Economics 106, 104007 (2024-05-01). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- CESifo Working Paper No. 9089, via EconStor, Duso, Michelsen, Schäfer and Tran, Airbnb and Rental Markets: Evidence from Berlin, working-paper version (2021-05). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- Regional Science and Urban Economics (Elsevier), abstract on IDEAS/RePEc, Franco and Santos, The impact of Airbnb on residential property values and rents: Evidence from Portugal, Regional Science and Urban Economics 88, 103667 (2021-05). Primary source, read 2026-10-08.
- Real Estate Economics, abstract on IDEAS/RePEc, Valentin, Regulating short-term rental housing: Evidence from New Orleans, Real Estate Economics 49(1):152-186 (2021-03). Primary source, read 2026-10-09.
- Journal of Housing Economics (Elsevier), abstract on IDEAS/RePEc, Horn and Merante, Is home sharing driving up rents? Evidence from Airbnb in Boston, Journal of Housing Economics 38:14-24 (2017-12). Primary source, read 2026-10-09.
- Management Science (INFORMS), abstract on IDEAS/RePEc, Chen, Wei and Xie, The Battle for Homes: How Does Home Sharing Disrupt Local Residential Markets?, Management Science 68(12):8589-8612 (2022-12). Primary source, read 2026-10-09.
Checked by the Booked News standards desk: every figure on this page was matched against the source it is marked with on 9 October 2026. The page is updated when its sources publish new figures. To report an error, write to the desk with the page address; see the corrections policy.
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