Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the supply of peer-to-peer accommodation and the housing market. Using data from Barcelona between 2018 and 2021 we take the variation in Airbnb density in neighbourhoods induced by the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment and observe its effect on rents and housing prices. According to these estimates, using a feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) under a Differences-in-Differences (DiD) framework, the reaction of prices to an exogenous COVID-19 shock that reduces Airbnb density in 1% is of 7% for rents and of 39% for purchase prices, which is significant and in line with model predictions and current research.