In recent decades, the expansion of second-home ownership among affluent groups and economic elites has become an influential mechanism in the social, economic, and physical restructuring of urban spaces, and its connection with gentrification processes—particularly in tourist cities and residentially attractive urban areas—has gained increasing significance. Despite the expansion of the gentrification literature, the role of second homes in intensifying socio-spatial transformations, displacing local populations, increasing land and housing values, and redefining patterns of urban consumption has still been examined in a fragmented manner and without an integrated conceptual framework. The present study aims to systematically synthesize existing findings and explicate the dimensions through which second homes affect the gentrification of urban spaces by employing a qualitative meta-synthesis approach. To this end, scholarly articles published in the Scopus and ScienceDirect databases during the period 2009–2025 were retrieved, and following a multi-stage screening process, 55 eligible articles were selected for the final analysis. The data were analyzed using NVivo 12 software, and VOSviewer was employed to identify the conceptual structure of the literature and patterns of concept co-occurrence. The findings resulted in the development of a conceptual framework that explains the relationships among five main categories, including driving factors, spatial consequences, adverse effects, rules and regulations, and characteristics of gentrification. The results indicate that second homes accelerate the gentrification process through economic, social, physical, cultural, and environmental mechanisms, thereby increasing pressure on housing markets, altering neighborhood functions, weakening local residents’ access to affordable housing, and reducing social cohesion. In addition, the lack of longitudinal data, the predominance of Western-centered studies, and the scarcity of comparative research in non-Western contexts were identified as major knowledge gaps. Ultimately, neoliberal policies have served as the principal facilitator enabling the entry of economic elites into urban real estate markets.