Willingness to pay for green buildings post COVID-19 pandemic outbreak: differences between high- and low-income areas and high- and low-price settlements

This paper examines whether city residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for green buildings changed after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to provide evidence showing whether COVID-19 affected people’s residential choices. Based on past literature, this paper proposes that the pandemic’s impact on the demand for green buildings may have two different directions: the effect of increasing demand for physical and mental health and the effect of decreasing income. This paper further infers that in areas with higher incomes and properties with higher total prices, the effect of increasing demand for physical and mental health will be more significant, making green premiums more likely to appear in these markets. Data from Taiwan’s largest metropolitan area, Taipei City, is used to verify these inferences. Based on the estimation results of different income and housing price regions, the study finds regional differences in the impact of the pandemic on the WTP for green buildings, which supports the inferences of this paper. Although opportunities for greener construction industries and green recovery have emerged, the results of this paper also imply that the greener effect caused by COVID-19 might be less significant in areas with lower incomes and housing prices. It is suggested that the government invest more in green construction in these areas to balance the green differences between housing markets in the city.