The Effect of Airbnb in the Gentrification Process in Amsterdam

Abstract: In a globalized world, the rapid development in digital technologies and finance has enabled the successful growth of Airbnb around the world. The spectacular growth in main cities has caused the social fabric of the city was negatively impacted. The diminishing local welfare, shortage in the housing market, and to the need for identifying ways to regulate the operations are the major concerns of local government who perceive Airbnb as a disruptor of the main city sub-systems —social, urban infrastructure, and governance. This dissertation intends to find relationships between the coevolution of the gentrification process and Airbnb by using a quantitative approach. This discussion is essential to understand additional dimensions of the debate of commodification of housing and which socio-economic and demographic mechanisms enable the adoption of Airbnb. The statistical analysis shows that gentrification and Airbnb have unevenly grown along the last 10 years in Amsterdam. The relationships between Airbnb and household-housing conditions led to establishing that a strong association has evolved in surrounding neighbourhoods of the central district. The adoption follows patterns in the socio-economic and housing conditions of neighbourhoods. The policy advice suggests that measures taken by the Municipality of Amsterdam to counter the spread of Airbnb can exacerbate and reinforce the relationship between gentrification and Airbnb is those areas