Regulating Airbnb: Approaches from Berlin, Barcelona and Amsterdam

A recording of this event is now available on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/s5ShIf2BU1o . 

Action on Empty Homes has recently been focusing on the phenomenon of 'Airbnbification': the process by which Airbnb lets overtake housing markets. Cities worldwide have been affected by the expanding market for short-term lets, and many residents in highly touristed communities have been displaced as a result.

This work has grown out of work on both the investor-dominated London housing market and on regional housing markets in the UK.

Action on Empty Homes brought together this event to examine cases of city-level Airbnb regulation from across Europe. We hope to provide housing activists and policymakers in the UK with the resources and expertise necessary to protect local housing markets and prevent residential displacement. The event speakers will include:

Dr. Andrej Holm: A senior researcher at the Department of Urban and Regional Sociology at Humboldt University in Berlin working on urban development and housing policy. As well as contributing to a variety of tenant initiatives in Berlin, Holm writes the Gentrification Blog.

Gabriel D’Adda: Political Science at Università degli Studi di Catania, having previously obtained a PhD from the Kent Law School. His recent research revolves around gentrification in Barcelona.

Jelke Bosma: A PhD candidate at the Department of Media Studies and the Centre for Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam. His PhD project examines the urban opportunities and challenges of Airbnb and is part of the Platform Labor project.

Sharda Rozena is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Leicester looking at gentrification and facadism in her home borough of Kensington, London. She writes about the lived everyday reality of gentrification and ‘airbnbification’ including her own auto-ethnographic experiences of living with Airbnb.project.

 

If you would like to get involved in this project then please email [email protected]

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Action on Empty Homes works to increase public awareness of empty homes, advocating policy changes, and connecting communities and housing experts to foster important conversations, we aim to promote robust and meaningful reforms in housing.

This meeting was supported by:

 

We want to invite you to join the conversation. A recording of this discussion is now available on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/s5ShIf2BU1o . Each speaker presents for around 10-12min, followed by a Q&A session.