Transport Policy and Property Values

New transport infrastructure may increase residential property values due to improved accessibility and increase commercial property values due to improved accessibility and possible agglomeration benefits. Classic urban location theory states that lower transport costs will result in higher land and property values. Theoretical parameters limit this relationship to an individual piece of transport infrastructure in a monocentric city but what if there are several transport modes and access is shifted relatively in the city or sub-region as a whole? In such cases the potential for redistribution of land and property values is a key issue. Research at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK is determining whether there is a relationship between investment in transport infrastructure and land and property values. Current research is establishing a methodology that will attempt to identify a relationship between accessibility and land and property value. In doing so it will be necessary to look for a relationship at the city/region level and at the local level. This will capture any relative shifts in values across the city/region as well as any absolute shifts in values near the transport improvement itself. This paper presents the findings of the review of literature relating to infrastructure investment, property value and land use change. Specifically the review considers the emerging transport framework and its potential impact on the property market. It examines the classical theories of the relationship between the location of urban land uses and values, and provides a critique of empirical urban rent and price determination studies with an emphasis on studies of transport influences on property values. The paper will then outline the methodology of a study devised to link an urban rent determination model to an accessibility model. This will test whether there is a relationship between land and property values and changes in accessibility caused by transport infrastructure improvements, and whether it is robust enough to handle changes in accessibility patterns. Transport Policy and Property Values