The influence of ‘touristification’ on Berlin’s real estate market

Real estate markets are influenced by diverse factors from both the supply and demand side. One influential dimension of real estate developments is tourism. On the one hand, the rising attractiveness of a city or region leads to changing configurations in the services and retail industry in order to consider tourists’ consumption and leisure practices. On the other hand, the real estate market is affected by an influx of tourists, aiming at accommodating the various needs of tourists. Berlin, which has remarkably risen as tourist destination in the past years, now ranking third after Paris and London in Europe, is affected by tourism in various ways: the hotel and catering industry is expanding, especially in the low budget travelling sector (hostels etc.), sometimes rivalling previous usages of the city space. With an estimated number of over 12,000 vacation rentals, many Berlin tourists stay in apartments, which were formerly regular apartments on the rental market. This practice of ‘authentic living’ creates more scarcity of affordable rent space in the city. The present paper discusses the concept of ‘touristification’, partially seen as side effect of gentrification, and its influences on the development of rent prices, modernization efforts and tenant structures. We are investigating the short- and long-term implications for both property owners, looking at higher short-term gains by renting to tourists, and tenants’ perspectives, facing higher pressure on their rents.To this point, the concept of ‘touristification’ has not received much scholarly analysis. Being present in popular discourse in Berlin’s city-specific political debates, the term is commonly used, however weakly defined. With the present research, we seek to conceptualize what phenomena the term ‘touristification’ seeks to describe and in what ways ‘touristification’ has an impact on real estate prices, on the housing market for property owners, as well as national and international tenants. In the present paper, we will delineate research questions and preliminary hypotheses on this very current topic. Applying a mixed-methods approach of real estate know-how and social sciences methodologies, we will present our interdisciplinary research design. We will give insight into the study design, which brings together perspectives on the (perceived and physical) influences of tourism on Berlin neighbourhoods from property owners, tenants and tourists.