Private building rehabilitation for short-term rentals as a municipal urban regeneration strategy: the case of Lisbon’s Avenidas Novas neighborhood

By analyzing 2214 buildings in Lisbon’s Avenidas Novas neighborhood (2009–2024), this article examines shifts in functional composition and building conservation status. It adopts a comparative approach to isolate the impact of short-term rentals (STRs), contrasting the rehabilitation patterns, maintenance, and renovation frequencies of STR-affected buildings against those untouched by tourist activity. Furthermore, it identifies specific rehabilitation typologies, from minor repairs to full renovations, to evaluate how STR prevalence transformed the area’s architectural character. Findings demonstrate that while market-oriented urban policies enhance socioeconomic revitalization through building rehabilitation, they simultaneously produce a hyper-tensioned housing market extending beyond the city’s touristified historic core. Ultimately, this paper calls for a participatory municipal debate on this urban strategy, reflecting on the role of public policy in mitigating the real estate pressures associated with the continuous growth of the short-term rental industry citywide.