Urban design and results variability in hedonic price modeling
- Thursday 23 November, 2-3 pm
- Room 320, Steele building
- Speaker Dr Scott Lieske
Abstract
Within the context of Australia’s backlog of transportation infrastructure development, “Value capture is back in fashion, and the calls are growing louder for Australia to tap into these seemingly wonderful revenue streams” (Terrill and Emslie 2017 p. 3). However implementing value capture requires information on how an infrastructure project will create value. This is both an econometric and a spatial question. Econometrically, the primary means of estimating the relationship between transportation infrastructure and value creation is through hedonic price modeling. This technique is capable of estimating the influence of transportation infrastructure on property prices. However, a problem with HPM is that results are highly variable. Results derived from case studies are in no way broadly generalizable or even necessarily applicable in the area where the study occurred at different time periods than the study. One of the reasons for the variability in HPM results looking at the influence of transportation infrastructure on property prices may be these models typically omit urban design considerations.
This research investigates highly localized urban design characteristics as a determinants of property value. The hypothesis investigated here is that continued interrogation of methods as well as inclusion of urban design characteristics will yield greater understanding of the factors that contribute to inconsistency and, in the long run a better understanding of the components of housing value as related to transportation infrastructure development. We find design characteristics to be significant determinants of property price within the context of transportation infrastructure development. We recommend further research in order to both corroborate and refine this assessment.
Speaker
Dr Scott N Lieske is a Lecturer in Geography within the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Queensland. His current research interests are in using spatial tools, data and technology for built environment and natural resources policy development and decision making. Research topics include city analytics; the relationship between urban form, costs of public services, and infrastructure costs; planning support system theory and implementation as well as regional environmental change. Additional areas of expertise include the effective use of geographic visualisation as a communication and decision support tool.