A conversation on housing under platform capitalism: The contentious regulation of short-term rentals in European cities

Over the course of a decade, short-term rental (STR) platforms (such as Airbnb, Booking, VRBO, etc.) and STR operators have significantly transformed the political economy of cities and housing in many localities worldwide. Our recently published book ‘Housing under Platform Capitalism. The Contentious Regulation of Short-Term Rentals in European Cities’1 explains how and why – faced with a sharp rise in STRs driven by a handful of multinational corporations – European local and national governments have developed starkly different regulatory approaches. It also studies the consequences of those regulations for urban and multi-level governance, politics and housing markets. We are grateful to the editors of P&S as well as to Emanuele Sciuva, Mara Ferreri and Gianluca Bei2 for offering us the opportunity to discuss our book in dialogue with their research, and ongoing debates about the politics and political economy of (urban) platforms. Here, we first summarise to what extent the book contributes to explaining the varieties of platform regulations and capitalisms. Following respondents’ comments, we then identify further research avenues on both platforms and platform-mediated housing markets.