The Threat of Short-Term Rentals to Housing: A Global Conversation
Date: Tuesday 21 April 2026 4-5pm / 16:00-17:00 UTC (1 hr)
Location: Zoom Webinar (transcribed captions available in multiple languages in real-time)
Hosts: Inside Airbnb and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York City
Short-term rentals have rapidly transformed housing systems around the world. What was once framed as a small-scale “sharing economy” has evolved into a global, highly commercialised operation —reshaping cities, concentrating housing, and intensifying existing inequalities.
This event brings together researchers, policymakers, and journalists from across Europe, the Americas, and Africa to discuss their experiences with short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, and the findings of a new global report from Inside Airbnb and the Housing Justice Data Lab: The Threat of Short-Term Rentals to Housing: A Critical Perspective on Airbnb’s Global Expansion.
This new global report from Inside Airbnb and the Housing Justice Data Lab draws on platform data from 224 countries and territories, alongside national analyses and mapped datasets across 165 cities and regions. It examines the rise of commercial operators, the dominance of entire-home listings, and the growing gap between platform expansion and effective regulation worldwide.
In this one-hour conversation, speakers will reflect on how these dynamics are unfolding in different contexts across the Global South and Global North, including Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and across Europe. The discussion will connect global patterns to local realities, exploring displacement, rising rents, regulatory struggles, and the role of data, journalism, and policy in responding to platform-driven housing threats.
Speakers
Aline Cruvinel (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Aline is an architect, urbanist, and researcher whose work focuses on the impacts of short-term rentals on housing and urban inequality. She holds a PhD in Urbanism from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and has conducted extensive research on Airbnb in Rio and its connections to broader global economic dynamics. As a co-author of The Threat of Short-Term Rentals to Housing, her work brings together large-scale data analysis and critical urban theory.
Andrés de la Peña (Guadalajara, México)
Andrés is a human rights journalist and housing activist based in Guadalajara, Mexico. His investigative journalism combines data-driven analysis with on-the-ground reporting. He is currently working on a series of investigative reports examining Airbnb’s expansion in Mexico, with a focus on local housing markets, displacement, and urban change.
Katalin Gennburg (Berlin, Germany)
Katalin is a member of the German Bundestag representing Die Linke and a leading voice on housing policy and urban development in Germany. She has been actively engaged in debates around short-term rentals, tenant protections, and the regulation of platform-based housing markets, bringing a legislative perspective to the challenges posed by Airbnb and similar platforms across Europe.
Sarita Pillay (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Sarita is an urban researcher and lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), affiliated with the Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies (CUBES). She holds a PhD in urban studies and her work focuses on spatial inequality, real estate development, and the role of the state in shaping urban environments. Her research examines how property markets and state power produce unequal urban outcomes in cities of the Global South. She brings a critical perspective on housing, urban change, and governance.
Hosted by
Murray Cox — Inside Airbnb / Housing Justice Data Lab
Julian Lattimore & Stefan Liebich — Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office
The event will include a brief presentation of the report, followed by a moderated panel discussion and audience Q&A.