IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/sercdp/0171.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Distinctively Different: A New Approach to Valuing Architectural Amenities

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt
  • Nancy Holman

Abstract

We propose a method to estimate the capitalized value of the architectural design quality of a neighbourhood. Our economic design premium is identified by spatially differentiating property prices and design quality within neighbourhoods and comparing the differences across neighbourhoods. We apply our method to 47 conservation area neighbourhoods in England in which we analyse around 7900 property transactions and interview more than 500 residents. We find a capitalization effect of about 25.4% (£38.7k) associated with a one-step increase on a five-step scale ranging from not at all-distinctive to very distinctive. Our results suggest that this effect is at least partially driven by an architectural externality.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Nancy Holman, 2015. "Distinctively Different: A New Approach to Valuing Architectural Amenities," SERC Discussion Papers 0171, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:sercdp:0171
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/sercdp0171.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Georgios Kavetsos, 2014. "Form or function?: the effect of new sports stadia on property prices in London," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 177(1), pages 169-190, January.
    2. Cheshire, Paul & Sheppard, Stephen, 2002. "The welfare economics of land use planning," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 242-269, September.
    3. Lalive, Rafael, 2008. "How do extended benefits affect unemployment duration A regression discontinuity approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 785-806, February.
    4. Edward L. Glaeser, Jed Kolko, and Albert Saiz, 2001. "Consumer city," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 27-50, January.
    5. David Albouy & Gabriel Ehrlich & Minchul Shin, 2018. "Metropolitan Land Values," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(3), pages 454-466, July.
    6. Thomas Brenner & Andr� Mühlig, 2013. "Factors and Mechanisms Causing the Emergence of Local Industrial Clusters: A Summary of 159 Cases," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(4), pages 480-507, April.
    7. Carlino, Gerald A. & Saiz, Albert, 2008. "City Beautiful," IZA Discussion Papers 3778, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Gibbons, Stephen, 2015. "Gone with the wind: Valuing the visual impacts of wind turbines through house prices," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 177-196.
    9. Paul C. Cheshire & Christian A. L. Hilber, 2008. "Office Space Supply Restrictions in Britain: The Political Economy of Market Revenge," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(529), pages 185-221, June.
    10. Gyourko, Joseph & Tracy, Joseph, 1991. "The Structure of Local Public Finance and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(4), pages 774-806, August.
    11. Nancy Holman & Gabriel M Ahlfeldt, 2015. "No Escape? The Coordination Problem in Heritage Preservation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(1), pages 172-187, January.
    12. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Nancy Holman, 2018. "Distinctively Different: A New Approach to Valuing Architectural Amenities," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(608), pages 1-33, February.
    13. Gibbons, Stephen & Machin, Stephen & Silva, Olmo, 2013. "Valuing school quality using boundary discontinuity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 45246, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Esteban Rossi-Hansberg & Pierre-Daniel Sarte & Raymond Owens, 2010. "Housing Externalities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(3), pages 485-535, June.
    15. Hans R. A. Koster & Jos N. van Ommeren & Piet Rietveld, 2016. "Historic amenities, income and sorting of households," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 203-236.
    16. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Kristoffer Moeller & Sevrin Waights & Nicolai Wendland, 2013. "Game of Zones: The Economics of Conservation Areas," SERC Discussion Papers 0143, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    17. Paul Cheshire, 2014. "Turning houses into gold: the failure of British planning," CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance 421, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    18. Marco Capasso & Lucia Cusmano & Andrea Morrison, 2013. "The Determinants of Outsourcing and Offshoring Strategies in Industrial Districts: Evidence from Italy," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(4), pages 465-479, April.
    19. Carlino, Gerald & Coulson, N. Edward, 2004. "Compensating differentials and the social benefits of the NFL," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 25-50, July.
    20. Gibbons, Stephen & Machin, Stephen & Silva, Olmo, 2013. "Valuing school quality using boundary discontinuities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 15-28.
    21. Albouy, David & Ehrlich, Gabriel, 2018. "Housing productivity and the social cost of land-use restrictions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 101-120.
    22. David H. Autor & Christopher J. Palmer & Parag A. Pathak, 2014. "Housing Market Spillovers: Evidence from the End of Rent Control in Cambridge, Massachusetts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(3), pages 661-717.
    23. Stephanie Riegg Cellini & Fernando Ferreira & Jesse Rothstein, 2010. "The Value of School Facility Investments: Evidence from a Dynamic Regression Discontinuity Design," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 215-261.
    24. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Georgios, Kavetsos, 2010. "Form or Function? The Impact of New Football Stadia on Property Prices in London," MPRA Paper 25003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    25. Brueckner, Jan K. & Thisse, Jacques-Francois & Zenou, Yves, 1999. "Why is central Paris rich and downtown Detroit poor?: An amenity-based theory," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 91-107, January.
    26. Tabuchi, Takatoshi & Yoshida, Atsushi, 2000. "Separating Urban Agglomeration Economies in Consumption and Production," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 70-84, July.
    27. Stuart A. Gabriel & Stuart S. Rosenthal, 2004. "Quality of the Business Environment Versus Quality of Life: Do Firms and Households Like the Same Cities?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 438-444, February.
    28. Eriksen, Michael D. & Rosenthal, Stuart S., 2010. "Crowd out effects of place-based subsidized rental housing: New evidence from the LIHTC program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 953-966, December.
    29. Christoph Basten & Frank Betz, 2013. "Beyond Work Ethic: Religion, Individual, and Political Preferences," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 67-91, August.
    30. Gibbons, Stephen & Machin, Stephen, 2005. "Valuing rail access using transport innovations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 148-169, January.
    31. Ben Dachis & Gilles Duranton & Matthew A. Turner, 2012. "The effects of land transfer taxes on real estate markets: evidence from a natural experiment in Toronto," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 327-354, March.
    32. Christian A. L. Hilber & Wouter Vermeulen, 2016. "The Impact of Supply Constraints on House Prices in England," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(591), pages 358-405, March.
    33. Oates, Wallace E, 1969. "The Effects of Property Taxes and Local Public Spending on Property Values: An Empirical Study of Tax Capitalization and the Tiebout Hypothesis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(6), pages 957-971, Nov./Dec..
    34. Glaeser, Edward L & Gyourko, Joseph & Saks, Raven, 2005. "Why Is Manhattan So Expensive? Regulation and the Rise in Housing Prices," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 331-369, October.
    35. Peter V. Schaeffer & Cecily Ahern Millerick, 1991. "The Impact of Historic District Designation on Property Values: An Empirical Study," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 5(4), pages 301-312, November.
    36. Paul Cheshire & Stephen Sheppard, 2004. "Capitalising the Value of Free Schools: The Impact of Supply Characteristics and Uncertainty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(499), pages 397-424, November.
    37. Ioannides, Yannis M., 2003. "Interactive property valuations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 145-170, January.
    38. Paul C. Cheshire & Christian A. L. Hilber & Ioannis Kaplanis, 2015. "Land use regulation and productivity—land matters: evidence from a UK supermarket chain," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 43-73.
    39. Franz Fuerst & Patrick McAllister & Claudia B Murray, 2011. "Designer Buildings: Estimating the Economic Value of ‘Signature’ Architecture," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(1), pages 166-184, January.
    40. Kerry D. Vandell & Jonathan S. Lane, 1989. "The Economics of Architecture and Urban Design: Some Preliminary Findings," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 17(2), pages 235-260, June.
    41. Imbens, Guido W. & Lemieux, Thomas, 2008. "Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 615-635, February.
    42. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Wolfgang Maennig, 2009. "Arenas, Arena Architecture and the Impact on Location Desirability: The Case of `Olympic Arenas' in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(7), pages 1343-1362, June.
    43. Dehring, Carolyn A. & Depken II, Craig A. & Ward, Michael R., 2008. "A direct test of the homevoter hypothesis," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 155-170, July.
    44. David Albouy, 2009. "What Are Cities Worth? Land Rents, Local Productivity, and the Capitalization of Amenity Values," NBER Working Papers 14981, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    45. Christian Hilber, 2015. "UK Housing and Planning Policies: the evidence from economic research," CEP Election Analysis Papers 033, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    46. Cheshire, Paul & Dericks, Gerard, 2014. "'Iconic design' as deadweight loss: rent acquisition by design in the constrained London office market," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58457, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    47. N. Edward Coulson & Robin M. Leichenko, 2004. "Historic Preservation and Neighbourhood Change," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(8), pages 1587-1600, July.
    48. Daniel Gat, 1998. "Urban Focal Points and Design Quality Influence Rents: The Tel Aviv Office Market," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 16(2), pages 229-247.
    49. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Kristoffer Moeller & Sevrin Waights & Nicolai Wendland, 2017. "Game of Zones: The Political Economy of Conservation Areas," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 421-445, October.
    50. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    51. Asabere, Paul K & Huffman, Forrest E & Mehdian, Seyed, 1994. "The Adverse Impacts of Local Historic Designation: The Case of Small Apartment Buildings in Philadelphia," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 225-234, May.
    52. repec:bla:econom:v:62:y:1995:i:246:p:247-67 is not listed on IDEAS
    53. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Wolfgang Maennig, 2010. "Substitutability and Complementarity of Urban Amenities: External Effects of Built Heritage in Berlin," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 38(2), pages 285-323, June.
    54. Blomquist, Glenn C & Berger, Mark C & Hoehn, John P, 1988. "New Estimates of Quality of Life in Urban Areas," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(1), pages 89-107, March.
    55. Schwartz, Amy Ellen & Ellen, Ingrid Gould & Voicu, Ioan & Schill, Michael H., 2006. "The external effects of place-based subsidized housing," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 679-707, November.
    56. Halvorsen, Robert & Palmquist, Raymond, 1980. "The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 474-475, June.
    57. David E. Clark & William E. Herrin, 1997. "Historical Preservation Districts and Home Sale Prices: Evidence from the Sacramento Housing Market," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 27(1), pages 29-48, Summer.
    58. Douglas S. Noonan & Douglas J. Krupka, 2011. "Making—or Picking—Winners: Evidence of Internal and External Price Effects in Historic Preservation Policies," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 39(2), pages 379-407, June.
    59. N. Edward Coulson & Michael L. Lahr, 2005. "Gracing the Land of Elvis and Beale Street: Historic Designation and Property Values in Memphis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 33(3), pages 487-507, September.
    60. Steve Gibbons, 2014. "Gone with the wind," CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance 433, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    61. Pagan, Adrian, 1984. "Econometric Issues in the Analysis of Regressions with Generated Regressors," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 25(1), pages 221-247, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Wolfgang Maennig & Felix J. Richter, 2013. "Urban Renewal after the Berlin Wall," Working Papers 049, Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg.
    2. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Kristoffer Möller & Sevrin Waights & Nicolai Wendland, 2012. "On prisoner's dilemmas and gilded cages: The economics of heritage preservation," ERSA conference papers ersa12p783, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Pantelis Koutroumpis & Tommaso Valletti, 2017. "Speed 2.0: Evaluating Access to Universal Digital Highways," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 586-625.
    4. Felix Richter, 2014. "Winner Picking in Urban Revitalization Policies: Empirical Evidence from Berlin," ERSA conference papers ersa14p1424, European Regional Science Association.
    5. Sevrin Waights, 2019. "The preservation of historic districts—is it worth it?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 433-464.
    6. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Nitsch, Volker & Wendland, Nicolai, 2019. "Ease vs. noise: Long-run changes in the value of transport (dis)amenities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Volker Nitsch & Nicolai Wendland, 2019. "Ease versus noise: long-run changes in the value of transport (dis)amenities," CEP Discussion Papers dp1631, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Georgios Kavetsos, 2014. "Form or function?: the effect of new sports stadia on property prices in London," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 177(1), pages 169-190, January.
    9. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Wolfgang Maennig, 2010. "Substitutability and Complementarity of Urban Amenities: External Effects of Built Heritage in Berlin," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 38(2), pages 285-323, June.
    10. Hans R.A. Koster & Jan Rouwendal, 2017. "Historic Amenities and Housing Externalities: Evidence from the Netherlands," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 396-420, October.
    11. Koster, Hans R.A. & van Ommeren, Jos & Volkhausen, Nicolas, 2021. "Short-term rentals and the housing market: Quasi-experimental evidence from Airbnb in Los Angeles," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    12. van Vuuren, Aico, 2022. "Is There a Diminishing Value of Urban Amenities as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic?," IZA Discussion Papers 15025, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Volker Nitsch & Nicolai Wendland, 2016. "Ease vs. Noise: On the Conflicting Effects of Transportation Infrastructure," CESifo Working Paper Series 6058, CESifo.
    14. Mark van Duijn & Jan Rouwendal & Richard Boersema, 2014. "Transformations of Industrial Heritage: Insights into External Effects on House Prices," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 14-122/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.
    15. Koster, Hans R.A. & van Ommeren, Jos & Rietveld, Piet, 2012. "Bombs, boundaries and buildings," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 631-641.
    16. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt, 2010. "Architektur, Ökonomie – Architekturökonomie," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(4), pages 340-355, November.
    17. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Alexandra Mastro, 2012. "Valuing Iconic Design: Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture in Oak Park, Illinois," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(8), pages 1079-1099, November.
    18. van Duijn, Mark & Rouwendal, Jan & Boersema, Richard, 2016. "Redevelopment of industrial heritage: Insights into external effects on house prices," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 91-107.
    19. Christian A. L. Hilber, 2017. "The Economic Implications of House Price Capitalization: A Synthesis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 45(2), pages 301-339, April.
    20. Kahn, Matthew E. & Walsh, Randall, 2015. "Cities and the Environment," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 405-465, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Architecture; beauty; boundary discontinuity; conservation areas; design; England; property prices;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R52 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Land Use and Other Regulations
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • C7 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cep:sercdp:0171. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/serc-papers/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.