Research projects

The economy of sharing is increasingly gaining in economic and social importance and influence. It affects a variety of areas of life, including housing and the housing market. Housing that was once intended for long-term residents of the city is now increasingly being used as holiday homes, becoming an integral part of global tourism.

The current reurbanisation as well as the still pending need to catch up on housing supply in many large cities are leading to rising rents, but also to spatial and functional changes in urban neighbourhoods. In this context, some cities take individual measures to control the extent of the sharing economy in the housing market.

The lack of data, the volatility of the supply and demand sides and the virtual global marketing are the main representatives of a number of obstacles to cities to analyse this market segment development and its effects on the housing markets, as well as to evaluate the effectivity of local authorities’ measures to encounter them. The project therefore focuses on the interaction of digital short-term rentals in housing stock and the regulatory approaches. Of conceptual interest is also the extent to which digital platforms with direct the access to the resource distribution of certain markets - in this case the housing market - can be brought into line with the strategic goals and planning actions of the cities by means of existing control instruments.

A QCA-supported comparison of the case study cities shows to what extent the measures taken are suitable for an effective regulation of short-term rentals in the short and long term. This results into a comparative evaluation of the different forms of regulation and contributes to the general discourse on the possibilities to control sharing economies by planning rules.

Diane Matuschek (ILS) and Vilim Brezina (TU Dortmund) are also involved in the project.