The geography of short- and long-term rental markets in two Greek urban agglomerations: implications from a geospatial big-data analysis

Since its launch in 2008, Airbnb has seen exponential growth, followed by many other similar platforms. This type of for-profit housing sharing economy has been linked in recent years to overtourism and the escalating housing affordability crisis in many countries, including Greece. Against this backdrop, the paper at hand explores the common factors that determine the link between short-term and residential rental markets in Greece’s two largest cities, Athens and Thessaloniki, using robust data on Airbnb listings, conventional hotels and residential rents, and conducts a neighborhood-level analysis. Specifically, it first examines the two markets separately and then inquires possible spatial and statistical interlinkages between the key variables employing various spatial and/or statistical correlation metrics as well as regression models. The paper finds that the geography of the two markets differs profoundly between the two cities. It confirms that the density of short-term rentals is indeed linked with increased residential rents, and documents how this link varies between different parts of the two cities, with listings pricing playing a key role. The paper contributes to the scarce literature on the relationship between short-term and residential rental markets in the Greek context. It goes beyond the scope of many comprehensive analyses and nuances their findings on the impact of speculative investment on land values.