Urban Research & Practice

ISSN: 1753-5069 (Print) 1753-5077 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rurp20

Informal urban regeneration as a way out of the

crisis? Airbnb in Athens and its effects on space
and society

Dimitris Balampanidis, Thomas Maloutas, Evangelia Papatzani & Dimitris

Pettas

To cite this article: Dimitris Balampanidis, Thomas Maloutas, Evangelia Papatzani & Dimitris
Pettas (2019): Informal urban regeneration as a way out of the crisis? Airbnb in Athens and its
effects on space and society, Urban Research & Practice, DOI: 10.1080/17535069.2019.1600009

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17535069.2019.1600009

Published online: 05 Apr 2019.

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URBAN RESEARCH & PRACTICE
https://doi.org/10.1080/17535069.2019.1600009

Informal urban regeneration as a way out of the crisis?

Airbnb in Athens and its effects on space and society
Dimitris Balampanidisa, Thomas Maloutas b
, Evangelia Papatzania,c and Dimitris Pettasd
a
Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH), Athens, Greece; bDepartment of Geography, Harokopio
University, Athens, Greece; cDepartment of Urban and Regional Planning, National Technical University of
Athens, Athens, Greece; dRegional Development Institute, Panteion University and Research Centre for the
Humanities (RCH), Athens, Greece

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This paper explores the effects of the Airbnb short-term rentals in Airbnb; housing; urban
Athens, against the background of the continuing socio-economic regeneration; segregation;
crisis and the substantial rise of urban tourism. The Airbnb practice gentrification; touristification
emerges as a major transformative force of urban space, economy and
society, which can be neither utterly condemned nor fully celebrated.
The effects of the Airbnb phenomenon are found to be both positive
and negative, including – on the one hand – the partial upgrading and
reuse of the existing building stock or the reactivation of the local
economy and – on the other hand – processes of residential segrega-
tion, gentrification and touristification.

Introduction
The effects of platform economy on the urban environment constitute a recently
developed topic of interest in urban studies and urban geography (e.g. Gant 2016;
Gay 2016; Gottlieb 2013; Gurran and Phibbs 2017; Lee 2016; Richardson 2015). Being
both heavily space-dependent and space-transformative, practices that involve the
short-term renting of dwellings have gained increased attention from urban scholars,
policy makers and local governments. In Athens, as in numerous cities worldwide, such
practices have become popular and wide-spread during the last few years. Enduring, as
well as new conditions and trends, such as the continuing socio-economic crisis and the
substantial rise of urban tourism, highlight Airbnb, along with similar platforms such as
HomeAway, Flip Key and Booking.com, as a transformative force of urban space, with a
crucial impact on the city’s development.
The urbanisation path of Athens makes it a very interesting case for investigating the
development of short-term rent platforms and their effect. Sharing common conditions
with other Southern – as well as Eastern – European cities, the investigation of the
aforementioned effect in Athens aspires to enrich the discussion of the platform
economy’s effects on housing and processes of platform-led urban regeneration in
Southern European urban areas.

CONTACT Dimitris Balampanidis d.balabanidis@yahoo.com

All authors have contributed equally to this work
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 D. BALAMPANIDIS ET AL.

There are important differences from North-Western European cities in this respect,
and similarities with Southern European ones, related to commonalities in the urbani-
sation model (Allen et al. 2004) and to crisis conditions (Maloutas 2014). Moreover, the
significantly differentiated housing conditions among Southern and Eastern, as com-
pared to Northern European cities, could lead to divergent effects of short-term rental
practices. In the former, the spread of the Airbnb phenomenon potentially creates a
threat to the current low rental prices (Statista 2018) and the high levels of accessibility
to affordable housing (Eurostat 2015). At the same time, the development of markets
and services that target visitors, to the detriment of those that target permanent
residents, could constitute a threat to the relatively low cost of living (Expatistan
2018). Building on the above, the negative effects of short-term rental practices could
have a greater impact in Southern and Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, they could also
further exacerbate the already limited provision and accessibility to affordable housing
in Northern and Western European cities.
This paper investigates the impact of Airbnb on housing and urban regeneration in
Athens. As a spontaneous and informal practice, Airbnb initially simply enabled house-
holds to increase their income; it also rebooted some declining economic activities. By
framing the preliminary development of the phenomenon as spontaneous and informal,
we want to underline the – initially – limited involvement of large private companies,
besides Airbnb itself, in various aspects of the Airbnb practice. At this point, neither
real estate investors (may they be companies or wealthy households) nor companies
that undertake the total of managerial and peripheral services (dwellings’ profile
management, online communication with visitors, advertisement, reception, cleaning
etc.) occupied the major share of Airbnb-related markets and activities. Gradually, large
investors engaged in this process and shifted the short-term rental market from an
individual, unregulated, informal practice to a large-scale, strategic management of real
estate property. This change is facilitated by the fact that Airbnb in Athens is develop-
ing in a context where housing and urban policies are quite marginal. This absence of
regulation has also induced the vacant dwellings that are entering the emerging short-
term rental market to do so through processes of entrepreneurialisation of small land-
lords, who are drawn in great numbers to this new form of rent seeking after the
difficulties they experienced during the crisis and the steep increase in property taxes.
As a result, many neighbourhoods are undergoing major socio-spatial transformations
with the introduction of new types of land use and activities related to the new short-
term residents. Eventually, processes of displacement are gradually unfolding, following
the impact of these processes on long-term rental rates.
Overall, the paper argues that Airbnb constitutes a major transformative force, with
an important impact on social and spatial relations in Athens. The informal practices
related to Airbnb have social, spatial and economic consequences and lead to ambig-
uous processes of urban regeneration and place making.
The assumptions made in this paper rely mainly on the elaboration of quantitative
data. Statistical and cartographic processing was, however, complemented by empirical
observation and a small number of interviews with real estate agents in the Municipality
of Athens. Data about Airbnb were drawn from the official Airbnb website and were
combined with the raw data offered from the ‘Inside Airbnb’ online platform. Data on
socio-economic categories in Athens were drawn from the application, ‘Panorama of
 URBAN RESEARCH & PRACTICE 3

Greek census data 1991–2011ʹ (https://panorama.statistics.gr/en), which offers access to

the official census data of the Hellenic Statistical Authority as well as cartographic tools.
Additional data on rent prices and the spread of different types of accommodation
available in central Athens were also drawn from other sources and comparatively
mapped.
The paper contains the following parts: first, a presentation of the recent and on-
going debate on the economic, urban and social effects of Airbnb and of its relationship
with the so-called ‘sharing economy’, as well as of the official regulations and policy
responses to the expansion of Airbnb practice. Then follows a presentation of the
context of Athens, highlighting the particularities of its urban development, the local
housing and urban policies and the implications of the crisis. The core of the paper is
about the social and economic geography of Airbnb in Athens, stressing its uneven
social and spatial development. The last part discusses the transformative effects of
Airbnb, focusing on processes of urban regeneration and involving a broader discussion
of the impact on touristification processes and their relevance in the Greek context.

The debate
Airbnb and its effects on economy, urban space and society
The Airbnb company was founded in San Francisco, USA, in 2008 by two graduate
students who, during a conference, offered air mattresses in their apartment to con-
ference delegates looking for cheap accommodation (Guttentag 2015). Since then, the
expansion of Airbnb has been substantial, with the company’s value currently estimated
at $31 billion (Bort 2018). Airbnb activity is spread over 81,000 cities in 191 countries,
accounting for more than 300 million guest arrivals while, during just the last two years
(2016–2018), Airbnb listings rose from two million to five million worldwide (Airbnb
2018). Thus, Airbnb has emerged as a major disruptive force (Guttentag 2015) in the
short-term accommodation industry, constituting an important actor in the hospitality
sector.
Airbnb is a mainly urban phenomenon, as are most platform economy activities,
based upon the existence of agglomeration benefits (low transport costs, large labour
market pools, fast spread of ideas and innovations) and spatial proximity of goods,
services, and qualities. As scholars (Davidson and Infranca 2016) have noted, Airbnb
short-term rentals tend to have a positive impact on the local economy of urban areas,
due to the mobilisation of additional, complementary activities varying from renovation
and cleaning services to restaurants and recreational spaces.
However, it is also underlined that the Airbnb practice can have a series of negative
effects on society and the urban environment. First, the spread of the Airbnb practice
tends to increase rent prices, not only for short-term rentals but also for conventional
long-term ones (Davidson and Infranca 2016; Gurran and Phibbs 2017; Lee 2016;
Meleo, Romolini, and De Marco 2016). In fact, Lee’s (2016) findings from Los
Angeles and Gurran and Phibbs’ (2017) findings from Sydney indicate that Airbnb
activity increases or creates upward pressures on long-term rents. Such pressures are
more important in central touristic urban areas where the housing stock is limited. In
such areas, Airbnb absorbs larger parts of the already limited stock, depriving the
4 D. BALAMPANIDIS ET AL.

conventional housing and rental market, leading to the displacement of permanent

residents (Gay 2016; Gant 2016). Eventually, these trends tend to undermine the
planning and design of urban space, intensify the use of urban resources, challenge
security conditions, frustrate residents’ everyday life and lead to conflicts between
residents and short-term tenants (Gottlieb 2013; Gurran and Phibbs 2017; Rauvh and
Schleicher 2015; Smorto 2015). As a result, residents in many cities organise in order to
protest against the effects of Airbnb on their neighbourhoods and everyday life, while
the actions of relevant movements have been described in the press as ‘tourismophobia’
(see, e.g. Burgen 2018; Coldwell 2017). Overall, shifts in the real estate market, the
demographic composition and the character of urban areas where Airbnb has devel-
oped are described as phenomena of ‘touristic gentrification’, ‘touristification’ (Freytag
and Bauder 2018; Gant 2016; Mendes 2016; Sans and Quaglieri 2016; Smorto 2015;
Gravari-Barbas and Guinand 2017) and extreme commercialisation of the housing
stock and urban commons (Gant 2016; Mendes 2016; Sans and Quaglieri 2016;
Smorto 2015).

Framing the ‘platform economy’

Sharing has long been a common societal practice, especially among members of
working-class, poor, and minority communities (Schor 2014), while the term ‘sharing
economy’ broadly entered the public discourse between 2010 and 2012 (Martin 2016).1
According to Martin (2016), two different and conflicting framings of the sharing
economy emerge. The first includes discourses of ‘an economic opportunity; a more
sustainable form of consumption; and, a pathway to a decentralised, equitable and
sustainable economy’, while the second used discourses of ‘creating unregulated market
places; reinforcing the neoliberal paradigm; and, an incoherent field of innovation’.
Schor (2015) distinguishes between initiatives and platforms that promote and facilitate
‘real sharing’ and firms that exploit the sharing discourse for profit, arguing that real
sharing consists of practices based on ‘social solidarity, ecological consciousness, and
open access’. Examples of the first category include Couchsurfing, Freecycle, Yerdle,
time banks, landsharing and seed and tool libraries. The second category includes large,
for-profit firms such as Airbnb, Uber and Lyft. Schor (2017) also argues that Airbnb
activity (among other platform economy practices) is intensifying income inequalities,
as the provision of goods and services is mainly taking place on behalf of well-off and
highly educated providers who are undertaking work traditionally done by ‘blue and
pink collar manual labour’. Despite the fact that low transaction costs lead to a rise in
income, its distribution is likely to be uneven, due to the existence of strong network
externalities and the fact that profits are mainly gathered by people who own assets of
high value (Frenken and Schor 2017). Moreover, there is evidence of discrimination in
Airbnb transactions. Racial disadvantage in terms of ratings, reviews and prices were
found in the USA (Cansoy and Schor 2017) with Afro-American males earning 12%
less than other hosts for dwellings with similar characteristics, while they are also more
frequently turned down as guests (Edelman and Luca 2014; Edelman, Luca, and Svirsky
2015). As Frenken and Schor (2017) argue, access to services and profits from the
platform economy is limited to ‘mostly white, highly educated, able-bodied urbanites
that have comprised the bulk of users in the first stage’.
 URBAN RESEARCH & PRACTICE 5

Regulatory efforts: the international experience

Up to date, institutional efforts to regulate and control the platform economy have been
both limited and fragmentary. Actors of the platform economy, often building upon the
dominance of innovation and economic growth narratives in local authorities’ goal
setting, operate on the border line of existing regulatory frameworks. At the same time,
they strongly resist regulation attempts, building on two lines of argument (Smorto
2015). First, it is argued that platform markets are self-regulated, due to the develop-
ment of rating features that provide the parts involved with information and feedback.
Second, they claim that, due to the non-professional character of the providers, rules
that apply to professionals should not be expanded to reach-out activities that develop
in peer-to-peer transactions. In most countries, regulatory efforts are developed on
behalf of regional and local authorities (Davidson and Infranca 2016; Lenaerts, Beblavý,
and Kilhoffer 2017). Lenaerts, Beblavý, M. and Kilhoffer (2017), who explored policy
responses to the platform economy in seven EU states, argue that the most common
policy and regulatory response is the application of existing frameworks to the platform
economy, especially concerning issues such as social protection, taxation and
competition.
Despite the Airbnb company’s efforts to avoid regulation, several cities around
Europe have designed and implemented regulatory policies. The majority of them
focus on the control of the phenomenon, the reduction of the allowed rental time
and its taxation. Additionally, several cities implement geographical restrictions (such
as Palma de Mallorca, Paris and Barcelona), limitations on the number of rental
apartments per neighbourhood (Berlin), or an obligation for rental companies to pay
tax to the municipality (Amsterdam). Within this on-going exploration of policies and
regulations that could address the negative effects of Airbnb development, certain
Southern European cities will have to overcome the lack of experience in designing
explicit, problem-led urban regeneration policies (see, e.g. Grisel and Van de Waart.
2011). Concerning Greek cities’ capacity to develop such policies, this lack of precedent
concerning urban policy design is accompanied by local authorities’ operation within a
frame of dependence on the state, as well as limited power, capacity and resources to
design and implement urban policies.

Airbnb in Athens: the context

Short-term rental practices, and, more specifically, those facilitated by online platforms
like Airbnb, emerged in Greece recently, in the context of a deep, multi-level crisis that
broke out as a public debt crisis, similarly to the majority of the Southern European
countries. The continuous austerity measures, often associated with income reduction,
retreat of the welfare state, unemployment and increased cost of basic goods, produced
a regime of sharpening inequalities and impoverishment for large parts of the popula-
tion (Maloutas 2014). Additionally, a significant, and perhaps less debated, aspect of the
crisis concerns its implications on the housing sector, gradually expressed as a housing
crisis. Some of its aspects are housing insecurity, energy poverty (Chatzikonstantinou
and Vatavali 2016), over-indebted households, auctions and increasing homelessness
(Balampanidis, Patatouka, and Siatitsa 2013). Athens, as the Greek capital and most
6 D. BALAMPANIDIS ET AL.

populated Greek city, is still experiencing the implications of the debt and housing
crises, interrelated with issues of urban deprivation.
During the last few decades, the urban development of Athens, along with the
changes in its demographic composition, evolved in parallel with the development of
specific land policies and housing production mechanisms. Evolving without central
planning, through the involvement of small constructors – in contrast to some other
Southern European capitals like Madrid (Maloutas 2014) – these procedures created
extreme segmentation and social diffusion of land property and high levels of home
ownership. Indicatively, the rate of home ownership in Greece and in Athens remains
high: in Greece it was 77.2% in 1991 and 76.0% in 2011; in Athens it was 69.1% in 1991
and 71.4% in 2011 (ELSTAT 2014). Moreover, local conditions are characterised by
affordable housing opportunities, mixed land use, social diversity and spatial proximity
(Arapoglou et al. 2009; Maloutas 2007, 2008; Vaiou et al. 2007). At the same time, it has
often been debated that the land and housing mechanisms that produced home own-
ership also reduced the need for a housing policy (Emmanuel 2006, 2014). Nevertheless,
home ownership has not always been an option for low-income groups, who have
settled mostly in the central and usually most degraded areas of the city, especially since
the 1980s (Emmanuel 2006; Maloutas 2007, 2014). In contrast with other European
countries, Greece had never implemented or even designed a social housing policy
(Emmanuel 2006). The Greek state’s favour towards home ownership has not been
accompanied by a policy of tenants’ protection – apart from different rent control
measures instigated from the 1920s to the mid-1990s – or a social rented sector, which
is literally non-existent. In contrast, the abolishment of the protection of rentals and
rents during the 1990s runs in parallel with a gradual process of commodification and
financialisation of the mechanisms of housing production (Balampanidis, Patatouka,
and Siatitsa 2013; Emmanuel 2006).
Thus, the impact of the crisis on housing was crucial, mostly due to the lack of a
relevant policy in the Greek context. The decrease in household income, the mortgage
over-indebtedness and the new property taxation policies contributed to the reproduc-
tion of a broad housing insecurity that affected the practices of both homeowners and
tenants. The role of family networks as a ‘protection net’ is weakening, and home
ownership is tending to transform from a strategic resource into a burden
(Balampanidis, Patatouka, and Siatitsa 2013). Market values have fallen since 2008,
depending on the characteristics of specific neighbourhoods and properties (Serraos et
al. 2016). The decay of public spaces has continued to spread, along with the absence of
regeneration projects and the repositioning of urban planning under the auspices of an
austerity paradigm. At the same time, the number of vacant dwellings in the region of
Attica in 2011 increased significantly (up to 77.3%, compared to their absolute numbers
in 2001), while in the Municipality of Athens the number of vacant houses rose to
132,000 (Maloutas and Spyrellis 2016) denoting the substantial population decrease,
among other factors.
During the last few years, Athens has been undergoing major changes to its touristic
identity that affect its overall developmental trajectory. Transforming from a one-
summer-day stopover to a year-round city break destination, Athens has, since 2013,
been experiencing an increase in tourism. The city has emerged as a year-round urban
destination, leading commentators to refer to the ‘miracle’ of the tourism industry
 URBAN RESEARCH & PRACTICE 7

(Smith 2016). In 2017, a record five million tourists were expected to visit Athens alone
(Krinis 2017), while, according to Izyumova (2017), the decrease by 22% in tourism
between 2007 and 2013 was followed by a 56% increase between 2013 and 2016. This
trend remains strong and in 2017 tourist arrivals in the Athens International Airport
increased by 8.6% compared to 2016 (AIT 2018). Moreover, between 2013 and 2015,
traditional accommodation capacity (in hotels) in Athens increased by 30%.

The size, socioeconomic features and geography of Airbnb in Athens

Airbnb rentals emerged in Greece as a whole and in Athens in particular as a popular
and widespread practice, similarly to many other cities around the globe. It is estimated
by the Greek Ministry of Finance that more than 50,000 dwellings countrywide are
available for rent through the official Airbnb platform (Euronews 2016). However, it is
not only the absolute number of Airbnb rentals that seems impressive but also their
growth rate. In the central Municipality of Athens alone, Airbnb listings exceeded 2,000
dwellings in July 2015, while two years later (in May 2017) they exceeded 5,000 and rose
to almost 9,500 in August 2018 (Inside Airbnb 2017; Airbnb 2018). Meanwhile, the
total number of short-term rentals could be significantly larger if the number of
dwellings rented through similar online platforms (HomeAway, FlipKey, etc.) were
added to the study, as well as the number of dwellings rented ‘unofficially’ through
Facebook, social networks and by word of mouth.
The way that dwellings are listed, managed and finally rented through the Airbnb
platform in the short-term rentals market has led to the argument that Airbnb belongs
to the so-called ‘sharing economy’. However, the way that the Airbnb market actually
works in Athens is very far from the real meaning of the term, that is, far from charging
for an airbed and a breakfast in a shared apartment or a shared room. In fact, during
2017, the vast majority of Airbnb hosts in the Municipality of Athens (83.2%) listed an
entire apartment/house, while only 15.8% and 1% of them respectively listed a private
room in a shared apartment/house or a shared room (Inside Airbnb 2017). The crucial
point here is not just that Airbnb has lost its initial characteristics as one type of
‘sharing economy’. More importantly, renting entire apartments/houses in the short-
term rentals market means that a significant number of dwellings are withdrawn from
the conventional long-term rentals market, which negatively influences the relationship
between supply and demand. Put simply, with the number of dwellings available for
long-term rent significantly decreasing – while the demand remains stable or even
increases – rental prices are pushed higher and higher, and renting an apartment in the
long-term becomes more and more difficult for permanent residents. This primarily
affects the central neighbourhoods of Athens, where the available apartment stock for
rent is already limited, although the vacancy rate is significantly high.
Beyond the scale and the general characteristics of Airbnb listings in Athens, the
cartographic processing of data reveals a particular geography. According to Map 1, the
highest concentrations of Airbnb listings are found in the very central and touristic
neighbourhoods of the city, around the archaeological site of the Acropolis, Lycabettus
Hill, Syntagma and Omonia Square. At the same time, Airbnb listings are spread over
the whole Municipality of Athens, North and West of Omonia Square, as well as in the
South-eastern and South-western parts of the city.2 It is noteworthy that, as shown in
8 D. BALAMPANIDIS ET AL.

Map 1. Distribution of Airbnb listings (Municipality of Athens, 2018).

Source: Inside Airbnb 2018

Table 1, Airbnb rentals emerge as quite a common practice, adopted in all social types
of neighbourhoods, from those with a high presence of low-income households to
neighbourhoods with a high presence of upper-income households. However, in
neighbourhoods where upper-income households are overrepresented, the Airbnb

Table 1. Concentration of Airbnb listings per type of neighbourhood (Municipality of Athens, 2018).
Airbnb Concentration
Types of neighbourhoods listings Population Index*
Overrepresentation of upper social groups 523 13,335 0.039
on all floors of residential buildings
Overrepresentation of intermediate social groups on all floors of 67 9187 0.007
residential buildings
Overrepresentation of lower social groups 1740 188,747 0.009
on all floors of residential buildings
High levels of vertical segregation 5535 307,318 0.018
Atypical and other 1396 138,391 0.010
Source: Inside Airbnb 2018
 URBAN RESEARCH & PRACTICE 9

concentration index is almost four times greater than in low-income neighbourhoods.

This is a strong indication that the Airbnb phenomenon in Athens is developing
unevenly, in social as well as geographical terms (apparently, in favour of upper-income
households).
The uneven way that the Airbnb phenomenon is developing in the city of Athens is
also reflected in the different extents to which different Airbnb hosts in different
neighbourhoods of the city benefit from the generated Airbnb income. It is widely
accepted that – particularly during the deep and on-going crisis in Greece – Airbnb has
offered an opportunity to low-income households – primarily in the Northern and
Western parts of the municipality – for an additional income to keep up with their
(increased) financial commitments and needs, such as fixed costs, taxes, insurance
contributions, mortgage instalments, etc. However, the income generated by the
Airbnb activity varies a lot, depending on the location of properties (Map 2). In the
very central and touristic neighbourhoods of the city – inhabited primarily by middle to

Map 2. Average Airbnb rental prices per night (Municipality of Athens, 2018).
Source: Inside Airbnb 2018
10 D. BALAMPANIDIS ET AL.

upper-income households – the average short-term rental price per night rises to or
even exceeds 80 euros; in neighbourhoods surrounding the city centre it varies between
40 and 60 euros, while in the Northern, North-western and North-eastern neighbour-
hoods of the city – inhabited primarily by low-income households – it is substantially
lower (lower than 40 euros).3 Taking into account the average short-term rental prices
per night and making a conservative estimate for an occupancy rate of eight months per
year (240 days), Airbnb hosts in the very central and touristic neighbourhoods may
reach an average annual income of almost 20,000 euros, against 6,000 euros for hosts in
the Northern, North-western and North-eastern neighbourhoods of the city.
Differences in income from Airbnb are much higher if multiple listings are taken into
account. During the year 2017, almost half of Airbnb hosts listed two or more dwell-
ings, thus multiplying the annual incomes estimated above (Inside Airbnb 2017).4
It becomes clear that Airbnb and similar platforms have not offered just a survival
strategy and a coping mechanism for low-income households but also, at the same time,
a greater opportunity and potential for speculation on land and real estate property and,
thus, of wealth accumulation to upper-income households, as well as to real estate
investors and companies that engage in the newly emerging short-term rentals market.
This potential for speculation is substantially greater than that from the conventional
long-term rentals market, especially when income from short-term rentals becomes part
of the so-called shadow economy and evades taxation.5
The potential for significant turnover and profits generated by the Airbnb economy and,
more importantly, the important losses of tax revenues for the state, have raised serious
concerns for public authorities. It is estimated that tax losses from the short-term rentals
market amount to approximately 270 million euros per year (Grant Thornton 2015). In an
attempt to regulate the short-term rentals economy and control tax evasion, a law was
recently adopted by the Greek parliament, as in many other countries around the world.
According to this law (4472/2017), income generated by short-term rentals is exempted from
VAT, but is taxed in the same way as any other income by real estate property: 15% tax for
individual income up to 12,000 euros per year; 35% for the portion of income between 12,000
and 35,000 euros and 45% for the portion exceeding 35,000 euros. Moreover, in the attempt
to protect the access of permanent residents to affordable housing, the law provides the
possibility of applying geographical restrictions. For example, Airbnb hosts may not be
permitted to rent more than two dwellings in areas with high concentrations of short-term
rentals facing a lack of long-term rentals and experiencing rental prices boom; or the overall
period of short-term renting may not be allowed to exceed 90 days per year or 60 days per
year in islands with less than 10,000 inhabitants. To date, this provision has not been
activated, while the competence belongs exclusively to the central government and not to
municipal authorities, in contrast to several other countries that have adopted similar laws
and regulations.

The effects of Airbnb in Athens

Taking into account the local contextual conditions and the way that short-term rentals
are increasingly spreading across the city of Athens, the Airbnb practice emerges as a
major transformative force; its multiple and ambiguous effects on the urban
 URBAN RESEARCH & PRACTICE 11

environment and the local economy do not yet permit definite conclusions, but they do
generate controversy and raise serious concerns.

Effects on the rental market

The most obvious and probably most discussed effect of Airbnb is the rise in rental prices in
the conventional rental market and, therefore, the danger for permanent residents of being
displaced from the neighbourhoods where they live. This could gradually lead to remark-
able changes in the socio-demographic composition of the city’s neighbourhoods, with
upper-income households and tourists dominating in neighbourhoods that used to be
socially mixed, following trends in other cities like Barcelona.
Concerning housing, Lee (2016) identifies two interrelated mechanisms through which
Airbnb restricts the supply of affordable housing, namely conversion (the withdrawal of
dwellings from the conventional rental market and their inclusion in the supply of hotel
rooms) and ‘hotelisation’ (the incentive for homeowners and leaseholders due to the gap
between Airbnb and hotel prices). These trends enable the invasion of touristic accommoda-
tion in residential areas (Brousseau, Metcalf, and Yu 2015) through unofficial and unplanned
processes. In Athens, there is strong evidence of the conversion and hotelisation of housing
stock located in areas that lie in the city centre, but outside the main touristic zones. By
focusing on five residential and mixed-use areas in central Athens, namely Exarchia, Neapoli,
Kolonaki, Lycabettus and Hilton, the negative effect of Airbnb on the supply of affordable
housing becomes quite clear, although the relevant maps provide only an indicative illustra-
tion of the available hotels and Airbnb listings. On the one hand, Map 3 shows that the
selected five central areas host a limited number of ‘traditional’ accommodation units, such as
hotels and hostels, and on the other hand, Map 4 shows that a substantial number of
dwellings have been withdrawn from the conventional rental market and converted into
tourist accommodation units through short-term rentals.

Map 3. ‘Traditional’ accommodation units in five central areas of Athens (2018).

Source: Booking.com
12 D. BALAMPANIDIS ET AL.

Map 4. Airbnb listings in five central areas of Athens (2018).

Source: Inside Airbnb 2018

Table 2. Changes in rent prices in Athens and Attica (2016–2018).

2016 2017 2018 2016–2018 increase rate
Central areas 5,50 5,63 7,14 29,8%
Northern areas 6,00 6,20 6,40 6,6%
Southern areas 5,00 5,50 6,00 20,0%
Western areas 4,20 4,20 5,30 26,0%
Region of Attica 5,25 6,00 6,00 14,3%
Source: RE/MAX (2016, 2017, 2018)

This large-scale invasion of touristic activity in non-touristic central areas seems to have
had a noticeable impact on rent prices. Table 2 shows that the highest rent increase between
2016 and 2018 in the metropolitan area of Athens is observed in central areas, that is, those
most affected by tourism, following the data provided by a large real estate agency, RE/MAX,
on rent prices in Greece.
While in the whole metropolitan area (Attica region), rent prices have increased by
14% from 2016 to 2018, the respective rise in central areas (comprising Exarchia,
Neapoli, Kolonaki, Lycabettus and Hilton) was 30%. Following the outburst of
Airbnb activity, as indicated by the 90% rise in Airbnb listings (Inside Airbnb 2018)
in the Municipality of Athens from 2017 to 2018, and taking into account the absence
of other developments that could contribute to a rising demand for housing, it can be
assumed that the short-term rental market industry has limited the supply of housing,
leading to a substantial rise in rent prices. Similar tendencies are also observed in
housing selling prices near the city centre, which have also increased.
 URBAN RESEARCH & PRACTICE 13

Effects on the urban environment, housing stock and local economy

Along with its noticeable impact on rent prices, Airbnb activity has already led to broader
transformations in the urban environment and the local economy, in both positive and
negative ways. The positive effects of Airbnb comprise the reactivation of a wide range of
professionals whose activity was hit hard by the crisis. Architects and engineers, graphic
designers and advertisers, real estate agents and personnel in cleaning services participate in
several stages of the Airbnb process, while they often cooperate through partnerships or
merge into companies. At the same time, especially in neighbourhoods with a high concen-
tration of Airbnb rentals, new businesses in commerce, catering and recreation are appearing,
replacing some of the large number of businesses that closed down during the crisis.
Through the triggering of the aforementioned ‘peripheral’ activities, Airbnb articu-
lates processes that account overall for the small-scale, soft urban regeneration of
numerous neighbourhoods of Athens. Such processes have emerged in an unplanned,
privately-led manner, having significant effects on housing, provision of private and
state services, land use and local economic activity. Moreover, they include diverse
actors, predominantly small businesses and individual professionals, leading to the wide
spread of the economic benefits produced by Airbnb-related services. Such benefits are
not geographically limited, as the professionals and businesses involved are often
situated outside the areas with high densities of Airbnb activity. Another factor that
increases the wide-range seizing of economic externalities is the development of the
aforementioned peripheral activities and exchanges within the unofficial economy.
It is empirically observed that a significant number of Airbnb hosts proceed to
renovation work before listing their apartments for short-term rental, which contributes
partly – but significantly – to upgrading the existing building stock. Renovation work
may vary from the rapid and low-cost refurbishment of a modest apartment to the
careful and costly restoration of a neoclassical style building, depending on the neigh-
bourhood, the investment prospect and the economic status of the Airbnb host. In any
case, it is not only the already inhabited and poorly maintained apartments that are
being renovated, but also apartments that have long remained vacant and are now
entering the rental market again. In this respect, Airbnb seems to have a positive impact
on both the urban environment and the economy. It contributes to upgrading the often
abandoned and degraded building stock, to decreasing the vacancy rate (which became
alarmingly high in the central neighbourhoods of the city in the 2000s) as well as to
reactivating the real estate market, which had long stagnated due to the economic crisis.
It should be stressed, however, that the aforementioned upgrading of the urban
environment and the reactivation of the local economy are completely privately-led,
fragmented and exclusively concern the private housing space. The regeneration pro-
cess does not involve a wider urban transformation, including public space, resulting
from a comprehensive, strategic and integrated public intervention. The way things
have evolved in this case should not only be attributed to the current lack of economic
resources for a major public urban planning and design intervention following the
economic crisis, but also to the historically persistent lack of public intervention to
remodel urban space.
14 D. BALAMPANIDIS ET AL.

Touristification as a threat to the city’s neighbourhoods’ composition and

character
Despite the positive impact of Airbnb on the local economy and the upgrading of the
housing stock, there are strong indications that several neighbourhoods of Athens
(especially the most central ones) may be violently transformed into mono-functional
areas, attractive only to tourists and increasingly unaffordable for permanent residents.
Indications of touristification processes that can affect neighbourhoods’ character, social
life, and social cohesion have been traced in several places. The term ‘touristification’ is
used to depict processes of tourism-led urban transformation, through which residen-
tial and mixed-use urban areas develop into touristic zones, often regardless of publicly-
led planning initiatives. As tourists increasingly expand their accommodation and
activities outside ‘traditional tourist bubbles’ (Stors and Kagermeier 2013), ‘touristifica-
tion’ processes develop through multi-level and complex channels that include shifts in
housing conditions and functional shifts in economic activity and land use.
Besides leading to increased rent prices, the invasion of Airbnb activity in non-
touristic, residential and mixed-use areas has led to a noticeable change of neighbour-
hoods’ functions and land use. Local businesses serving the needs of permanent
residents are rapidly being replaced by ones that are – directly or indirectly – related
to tourist activity. Thus, while short-term rentals appear to provide a boost for local
economies, several professional categories and local businesses are experiencing sub-
stantial losses and face the threat of closing down. Moreover, touristic and recreational
zones are being developed within residential areas in an unplanned, privately-led
manner, leading to disturbances in permanent residents’ everyday life, while the
mixed land-use character of most central areas in Athens facilitates the invasion trend.
The most alarming potential consequence of the proliferation of Airbnb in Athens is
the potential displacement of lower status social groups – including large numbers of
migrants – from central neighbourhoods where they have been able to find affordable
housing during the last thirty years. The centre of Athens used to host the upper and
upper-middle social groups, until it became congested following the building boom in
the 1960s and 1970s and there was a decline in living conditions produced by this
congestion. Henceforth many households belonging to these groups progressively
abandoned the centre for the North-eastern and Southern suburbs. The housing stock
that still dominates the centre, and accommodates almost 70% of its population,
consists of the typical apartment building of the boom period. These buildings are
vertically segregated in both class and ethnic terms because housing conditions are very
different in the large privileged apartments of upper floors and in the disadvantaged
small apartments on ground floors and in basements. The latter are usually occupied by
lower-income households, including large numbers of migrants who were driven to this
part of the stock – the most affordable private rented housing – in a city where no other
options were available, while the former are usually occupied by elderly middle-class
native Greeks (Maloutas 2018). This unplanned class and ethnic cohabitation has been
quite stable for the last thirty years and it has been argued that the dominant presence
of such apartment buildings has been a long-standing barrier to gentrification in all the
high-rise neighbourhoods of the city centre. The reason is that gentrifiers would only be
attracted by the privileged part of the stock – that is, apartments on upper floors – while
 URBAN RESEARCH & PRACTICE 15

those on lower floors remained ungentrifiable since no investment could make them
adequate for middle-class long-term users (Maloutas 2018).
Airbnb changes this situation by transforming low quality and low return properties
into short-term tourist accommodation. The disadvantage of these properties for con-
ventional renting is not so important, since – if adequately refurbished – such apart-
ments can compete with lower standard hotel rooms (without a view, etc.) with the
advantage of their central location. For the time being, the consequences of the
proliferating Airbnb practice are mainly felt in the most touristic neighbourhoods of
the centre, where conventional rent prices have risen sharply, creating problems for
actual and potential long-term residents of lower means. There are two parameters that
can mitigate or exacerbate the impact of Airbnb in this case. The first is the city’s
attractiveness to tourists, which will create further pressures on the rent market if it
continues to grow following the trend of recent years. The second is the large amount of
vacant housing, which may act as a buffer, absorbing part of the negative effect. In any
case, there is the alarming prospect of massive displacement for lower-income house-
holds from areas of the broader centre in a city where there are no feasible housing
alternatives. This prospect has to be considered in policy terms before it creates massive
problems, but housing issues are actually in a policy void since the closure of public
housing and planning agencies, following austerity policy directives in the early 2010s.
Overall, numerous Athenian neighbourhoods are already experiencing the negative
impact of Airbnb activity. The growing involvement of large investors and managerial
firms in the short-term accommodation industry is expected to contribute to the
expansion of this practice and its negative effects on urban space and permanent
residents’ life. This involvement will induce a further shift of the industry from a
fragmented, unplanned activity performed by small-scale individual owners to a
large-scale, privately-led and profit driven urban development.

Conclusions
According to the findings presented in this paper, Airbnb rentals constitute an increasingly
widespread practice in Athens, as in many other cities around the world. However, since
Airbnb is a recently emerged and on-going phenomenon, it is not possible yet to draw
definite conclusions about an issue that generates much controversy and raises complex
questions and serious concerns. It is, however, undeniable that the Airbnb phenomenon
has emerged as a major transformative force, with multiple and – more importantly –
ambiguous effects on urban space, society and the local economy.
The ambiguity of the Airbnb phenomenon lies first in the way that it has developed
in spatial and social terms. Beyond the significantly high concentrations of Airbnb
rentals in the central and touristic areas of Athens, the phenomenon has spread across
the entire city, from its most deprived to its most affluent neighbourhoods. But the
geographical dispersion of the phenomenon does not automatically imply that all
Airbnb hosts in all the different neighbourhoods of Athens benefit from Airbnb
revenues to the same extent. In fact, while Airbnb has provided to low-income house-
holds a (new) survival strategy and a possible way out of the crisis, at the same time, it
has offered to upper-income households – as well as to large real estate investors and
companies that engage in the newly emerged short-term rentals market – a greater
16 D. BALAMPANIDIS ET AL.

opportunity: a new field and potential for speculation on land and real estate property,
especially when the generated incomes avoid taxation.
Under conditions of deep and continuous crisis in Greece, Airbnb has not only
favoured its hosts – unevenly – but has also rebooted the long-stagnant real estate
market and has reactivated the local economy in general. Airbnb has created work and
income for many occupational categories whose activity had been hard hit by the crisis,
from real estate agents to architects and engineers, graphic designers and advertisers,
workers in cleaning services and other sectors belonging to the (new) short-term rentals
‘industry’. Moreover, it has created new businesses – especially in commerce, catering
and recreation – thus decreasing the large number of business locales that were closed
down during the crisis. Additionally, it has reintroduced a significant number of vacant
apartments into the rental market and has led to the renovation of old and degraded
dwellings, thus contributing also to the partial upgrading of the building stock.
The positive effects of Airbnb on urban space, society and the local economy, however,
constitute only one side of the coin. The constant increase in Airbnb rentals has signifi-
cantly limited the supply for the conventional long-term rentals market, induced an
increase in rental prices and has already led to the displacement of some permanent
residents. Certain neighbourhoods of the city centre have been turned into mono-func-
tional areas, hosting primarily commercial and recreational land use and, thus, have
become attractive only for tourists and other transient residents. The biggest challenges,
however, are the potential remarkable and violent changes in the socio-demographic
composition of the city’s central neighbourhoods, where Airbnb may be the catalyst for
the massive displacement of lower-income social groups and migrants from socially mixed
areas that have provided affordable housing over the last thirty years.
Athens, so far, has not experienced extreme ‘touristification’ or/and ‘gentrification’,
compared to several other cities around the word. However, concerns about possible
outcomes in the near future are entirely realistic and have already been expressed in
different ways by a wide range of actors, such as local residents, professionals in
tourism, academics and the central and local governments. The recent law introducing
taxation and restrictions on short-term rentals may be a first step towards regulating the
Airbnb phenomenon. However, dealing with its contradictory aspects (small individual
actors participating in a sharing economy practice versus large scale speculative real-
estate activity by big actors) and its ambiguous effects (positive in terms of local growth
and reactivation of parts of the local economy versus alienation of long-term residents
and neighbourhoods’ identities, displacement of lower social categories and segrega-
tion) needs further reflection and action, since it appears to be about a complex new
phenomenon that can be neither utterly condemned nor fully celebrated.
Overall, despite its positive effect on local economies, Airbnb creates significant threats to
most European cities in several aspects. The limitation of affordable, quality housing provi-
sion, undermining of official urban planning and urban policies and conflicts between
permanent residents and visitors all endanger social cohesion and the development of
processes of inclusive and sustainable urban development. However, given the increased
precariousness of households in countries that have experienced economic deprivation, the
lack of experience in the design and implementation of problem-led urban regeneration
policies and – until now – the high levels of accessibility in affordable housing, there are
 URBAN RESEARCH & PRACTICE 17

strong indications that the spread of short-term rentals and their negative effects will have a
considerable impact in Southern and Eastern European cities.

Notes
1. The sharing economy brings together private providers and consumers and therefore
reduces transaction costs. Within this type of economic activity, a large variety of goods
and services become subjects of exchange and sharing (e.g. carpooling practices, temporary
accommodation, sharing of workspaces and infrastructure, etc.). Some of the factors that
have played a key role in the development of the sharing economy are the technological
evolution, innovative ideas for economic growth and the development of tourism as an
‘authentic’ urban experience (Smorto 2015; Russo and Scarnato 2016).
2. Airbnb listings also spread beyond the administrative boundaries of the central Municipality of
Athens, in all directions and especially in the affluent Southern suburbs of Athens located along the
seafront.
3. The difference in (absolute and average) daily rental rates is even greater in the Southern
suburbs of Athens, where the average daily price is approaching 80 euros (compared to 55
euros in the Municipality of Athens). In Glyfada, Voula and Vouliagmeni, the average daily
rental price exceeds 80 or 90 euros, while the highest absolute daily rental rates may be
multiple times higher than those in the Municipality of Athens.
4. In the city of Athens, almost half of the Airbnb listings (43.8%) constitute multiple listings,
most of which include from two to four dwellings (Inside Airbnb 2017). Less frequently,
multiple listings include more than four dwellings, exceed 10 or rise to 60, owned and
managed not only by individuals but also by companies that are already active – or have
recently entered – the short-term rentals market.
5. It is estimated that Airbnb rentals offer three to four times higher profits to leasers compared
with conventional long-term rentals (Sans and Quaglieri 2016). This is due to the fact that
prices per night in the short-term rentals market are significantly higher than conventional
monthly rents, as well as to the fact that the Airbnb practice is often part of the informal
economy as a form of ‘shadowed hospitality’ (Grant Thornton 2015) that evades taxation.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
This work was supported by the RESEARCH CENTRE FOR THE HUMANITIES (ATHENS,
GREECE).

ORCID
Thomas Maloutas http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7564-6226

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