Digital Platforms, Imaginaries and Values Creation: Opportunities for New Urban Dynamics

Abstract

Starting from 2015 in Naples, Italy, the Short-Term Rental season (STR) has been inaugurated with Airbnb. In 2019 the apartments of the STR panorama constituted 12.35% of the entire residential real estate stock in the historic centre of the city, starting a gradual process of airification. The observed condition has produced a progressive expulsion of low-income residents and students, accompanied by the increase in evictions for the transformation of properties that are not very attractive for the ordinary market into b&bs to be valued through the sharing platform. During the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the condition faced led to a downturn in listings on Airbnb due to the real estate reorganisation mechanisms, with the conversion of part of the b&bs into new uses. Furthermore, with the reopening of national borders and the possibility of travelling, tourism activities have restarted the mechanisms of territorial promotion, conveyed above all through the images published on the web, which influence the choices of users and the dynamics of the urban values. The study contemplates the effects of digital platforms on the production of the Neapolitan imaginary, which, in turn, influences the dynamics of the real estate market, where tourism has made “waste properties” attractive. New processes encourage investments in properties that are scarcely desirable for the ordinary market, defining a new type of specificities and generating urban regeneration processes relevant for the production of the interstitial rent.