The uneven effect of Airbnb on the housing market. Evidence across and within Italian cities

We investigate if Airbnb diffusion affects residential property values differently across and within cities leveraging the heterogeneity of five Italian cities in terms of tourist attractiveness, local housing markets and socio-economic conditions. We find that Airbnb density growth leads to increases in house prices in all cities. Within-city, the impact is positive both in centers and in suburbs in more touristic towns, but only in center in the others. Moreover, Airbnb may increase or decrease the center-periphery price gap. Our results suggest that the different impact of Airbnb on housing sub-markets is driven by local disparity conditions.