PLATAFORMAS DIGITALES DE ALQUILER TEMPORARIO Y NUEVAS FORMAS DE EXTRACCIÓN DE RENTAS URBANAS. MIRADAS DESDE BUENOS AIRES

Miradas desde Buenos Aires

Abstract

This paper explores the emergence of short-term rentals (STR) in Buenos Aires, a phenomenon that has been little explored in Latin America. We argue that STR are a flexible modality of real estate rent which accelerates the turnover of capital and mobilizes it globally through new transnational financial instruments, while, at the local level, it reinforces the problems of access to housing. Using data gathered from Airbnb listings, interviews with key stakeholders, and government sources, three main dimensions of the phenomenon in Buenos Aires are analyzed: socio-urban effects, the emergence of new actors in the urban rental chain, and the role of the state in the proliferation of short-term lets. Among the main findings, we observed that (a) this rental model reproduces and deepens socio-territorial inequalities; (b) the STR have given rise to new and renewed actors -national and transnational- in the chain of urban rent extraction in Buenos Aires; and (c) the local state has contributed -by action and omission- to the deployment of STR, avoiding the negative effects on local residents' access to rental housing.