High Voltage Power Lines and Property Values

Determining the impact of detrimental conditions and environmental features such as electricity distribution equipment remains one of the more difficult aspects of property valuation. Since the 1950ís, research aimed at establishing the impact of HVOTLs on the value of residential property has been conducted in the USA, Canada and to a lesser degree New Zealand, where transaction data is available for analysis. Studies have either investigated the impacts on value by analysing transaction data, or investigated the opinions, attitudes and perceptions of market participants. In the UK, by comparison, research has focused almost exclusively on public and professional opinions towards distribution equipment and found that attitudes were generally negative towards the presence of HVOTLs near residential property. However, no apparent attempt was made to establish whether or not negative perceptions translated into lower values or longer marketing periods, arguable due to the lack of available transaction data for analysis. Transaction data that is in the public domain is either difficult to obtain and prohibitively expensive from the Land Registry or not property specific; either referring to the mean value of similar property within a specific location or to property tax bands that are too wide to allow for small variations in value to be apparent. Valuers are left with the difficult task of placing a value on the impact of HVOTLs and other distribution equipment without a benchmark to provide some guidance. This paper compares the results of three UK case studies using a hedonic approach and regression analysis to determine the actual impact of a HVOTL on residential house prices. This paper presents the conclusions from a body of work conducted in partial fulfilment of a PhD Thesis.