Hedonic modelling of high street retail properties: a quality design perspective

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between urban design quality and the real estate value of high street retail properties. Quantitative research on the added value of quality design has seen little advancement during the past two decades and hedonic analysis of the high street retail sector remains embryonic. This paper bridges this gap by providing empirical evidence on the added value of quality design. Design/methodology/approach -The study uses a unique dataset of 301 Belfast City Centre retail transactions during the period 1994-2009. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis is used to estimate a hedonic pricing model that utilises a composite range of variables. These variables were designed employing quantitative and qualitative approaches complementarily to strengthen the value of the empirical research. Findings -The findings suggest that aspects of quality design such as connectivity, frontage continuity and variety, material quality and massing appropriateness add to real estate value. These findings supplement those on sector-specific value determinants that emphasise the high impact of location, tenant characteristic and Zone-A price calculations. Practical implications -In analysing high street retail rent determinants this paper focuses on the impact of various aspects of quality design to inform investors and developers about those aspects that are highly valued by city centre retail tenants. Policy makers benefit from the findings through empirically justified built environment benchmarks for improving the quality of life in our cities. Originality/value -This study provides a quantitative model for measuring urban design quality which uses data from a UK city but has a wider application range. It bridges a significant gap in the literature related to hedonic investigation of the added value of quality design by providing a holistic approach to quality.

Street-Frontage-Net: urban image classification using deep convolutional neural networks

“…Example research with street frontage might include to what extent street frontage quality might affect well-being or house prices. Previous studies using urban characteristics such as street frontage have been limited to small areas due to the cost and time required to collect such data (Nase et al 2013). However, deep learning methods can retrieve large-scale results of estimated effects on urban performance.…”

“…Since its introduction, the hedonic price approach has become an established real estate method for pricing environmental goods and constructing housing price indices, and serves as evidence in the development of welfare policies (Palmquist 1984;Ridker and Henning 1967). To date, the effects of urban frontage on property values has largely been supported by a limited number of quantitative studies (Nase et al 2013).…”

“…For example, the greater the number of doors and windows facing a street, the more "eyes-on-the-streets", which contributes to the perception of a safe, convivial and sociable street (Jacobs 1961;Alexander et al 1977). There are also health benefits such as improved walkability, and economic benefits such as increased land value (Heffernan et al 2014;Nase et al 2013). Despite being advocated in planning guidance (Llewelyn Davies Yeang and Homes Communities Agency 2013), previous research on this topic had been limited, firstly in terms of scale, as the majority of previous research used small scale questionnaires, and secondly in terms of establishing what benefits active frontages provide (Heffernan et al 2014;Kickert 2016;Nase et al 2013).…”

Impact of quality-led design on real estate value: a spatiotemporal analysis of city centre apartments

“…To address this issue data from field observations were used. Subsequently, a group of local experts (architects/urban designers) was employed to assess the appropriateness of a building to its surroundings for seven different categories on a 5-grade Likert scale (see Nase, Berry, & Adair, 2013 for more details). The seven categories are namely choice of material (finishing), external façade identity, quality of material used (materialqual), fenestration that relates to the whole appearance/composition of a building frontage in relation to window/ bay levels, repetition etc.…”

The IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ON SHOPPING LOCATIONS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE AUSTRIAN MARIAHILFERSTRAßE

“…Contemporary hedonic research is characterized by an increasing interest in the interrelationship between urban design and the real estate development, as recognized by Nase et al [1]. Several empirical studies evaluate the impact of pedestrian areas on housing, with results generally demonstrating significant relationships between prices and environmental conditions such as reduced traffic noise (as traced back by a literature survey by, i.e., Bartholomew and Ewing [2]).…”