The
'Airbnb effect': is it real, and what is it doing to a city like
Amsterdam?
In
the Dutch capital, Airbnb has been accused of driving up property
prices and disrupting communities – while others say the website’s
gentrifying tendencies are much exaggerated. So who’s right?
Renate
van der Zee in Amsterdam
Thursday
6 October 2016 07.30 BST
Sito Veracruz lives
in the centre of Amsterdam. Some years ago, he enthusiastically
rented out a room on Airbnb. “At first I thought it was a great
idea,” he recalls. “But I now realise there are side-effects that
we didn’t foresee. Airbnb can be a threat for cities.”
Veracruz, an urban
planner, witnesses daily how the large number of apartments rented
out on Airbnb and other short-stay rental websites are bringing more
and more tourists to the central areas of Amsterdam. He says this has
a negative effect on life in these neighbourhoods – and he’s not
only talking about the nuisance that noisy, partying tourists can
create for the local residents.
“I think it’s
obvious that Airbnb contributes to gentrification,” Veracruz says.
“It drives up real estate prices that are already searing in
Amsterdam. Neighbourhood business that create ties between residents
are replaced by businesses that only focus on tourists. Bike rental
companies replace local grocery shops. And apartments that are
continuously rented out to tourists are lost to people who want to
actually live here.”
Such is Veracruz’s
concern that he is trying to create an alternative service: Fairbnb.
What he proposes is a short-stay rental platform that is beneficial
to the city – with hosts who are registered with the council, and
neighbours who are involved in the management of the platform.
“I am talking
about a platform that really complies with the principles of a fair,
non-extractive and collaborative economy,” Veracruz says. “We
would like to encourage visitors to stay in areas where they are not
a disturbance, but could add something to the neighbourhood.”
The issues triggered
by the global rise of Airbnb are a subject of ongoing debate in
Amsterdam. It has become extremely popular, and lucrative, to rent
out a flat or room here on one of the short-stay rental platforms, of
which Airbnb is by far the biggest. An estimated 22,000 rooms and
flats in the Dutch capital are now offered for rent this way at least
once a year. In the most popular neighbourhoods, as many as one in
six homeowners rent out a room or flat on Airbnb.
Earlier this year,
the Dutch bank ING stated in a report that Airbnb drives up real
estate prices, because people are prepared to pay more for a flat
when they can make extra money by renting it out. The bank found the
effect to be “considerable”, although not everybody agrees on
this conclusion. “The studies that have been done are not very well
founded,” says Janine Harbers, a spokeswoman for Amsterdam’s city
council. “But some effect seems likely.”
According to Peter
Boelhouwer, professor of housing systems at the University of
Technology in Delft: “When so many flats are rented out to
visitors, it has an effect on the availability of real estate. There
is a great shortage in the housing market in Amsterdam and this
doesn’t do it any good – but one shouldn’t exaggerate it.”
Amsterdam hosts
millions of tourists each year, with many of them choosing to stay in
Airbnb rentals. Photograph: Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty
Images
Boelhouwer says the
“Airbnb effect” is by no means a primary factor in the city’s
gentrification, which “has been going on for a long time in the
central areas of Amsterdam.
“The council
welcomed it at first because it meant an upgrading of the city,” he
adds. “But now that it continues, you see the rise of very
unilateral neighbourhoods. Families with children are leaving this
city because they can’t afford to live in the good areas.”
In fact, Amsterdam
has taken some steps to address the impact of Airbnb on its housing
markets. Back in 2014, it was the first city to sign an agreement
with the multinational, which saw Airbnb agree to levy and hand over
tourist taxes to the city, remove addresses where the council has
intervened because of complaints, and inform users of its rules
(typically, that apartments should be rented out for no longer than
60 days per year, to not more than four guests at a time).
What the city has
been unable to do, however, is make Airbnb disclose the identity of
those hosts who do not stick to its rules. The company still refuses
to do so on privacy grounds.
This means that
enforcement of these rules is difficult. According to the independent
website Inside Airbnb, around half of the Amsterdam flats on Airbnb
are rented out more than 60 days a year. A quarter of the hosts were
found to have multiple listings – with some identified as “more
likely to be running a commercial business and to violate the rules”.
Harbers from the
city council, however, says the problem is less serious than Inside
Airbnb suggests. “According to our statistics, a majority 81% of
the hosts respect the rules – and we are working on [those who do
not]. We have established a hotline for complaints as well as
researching online, and we have raised the fine for people who break
the rules to €20,000.”
Bernard D’heygere,
a spokesman for Airbnb, describes its relationship with Amsterdam as
“our longest and strongest partnership with any city in the world”.
“Airbnb puts money
in the pockets of regular Amsterdammers,” he adds. “The typical
host earns €3,800 a year by sharing their space for a total of 28
nights [each year]. And we will continue to work with policymakers to
make the city’s communities stronger.”
Fairbnb creator
Veracruz recently held his first “meet-up”, with about 20
like-minded people who were keen to collaborate on his new rental
platform. “With Fairbnb,” he says, “we hope we can reduce some
of the pressure on Amsterdam’s popular neighbourhoods.”
Meanwhile, the city
council has opened new negotiations with Airbnb. Whether this will
address the problem of identifying those hosts and guests who don’t
respect the rules, remains to be seen.
Are you experiencing
or resisting gentrification in your city? Share your stories in the
comments below, through our dedicated callout, or on Twitter using
#GlobalGentrification
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