Sign Value, Topophilia, and the Locational Component in Property Prices

Abstract

Human beings have persistently searched for the ideal environment. How it looks varies from one culture to another but in essence it seems to draw on two antipodal images: the garden of innocence and the cosmos. The fruits of the earth provide security as also does the harmony of the stars which offers, in addition, grandeur. So we move from one to the other: from the shade under the baobab to the magic circle under heaven; from home to public square, from suburb to city; from a seaside holiday to the enjoyment of the sophisticated arts. Seeking for a point of equilibrium that is not of this world. '' Tuan (1974) 1 Analysing residential location and land value: some background Over the last few decades a certain fragmentation of economy and society has taken place on a global scale (for example, Lash and Urry, 1994). On the other hand, the meaning of the term`place' has become a key element in many of the phenomena affected by such fragmentation. One notable observation with substantial social and economical significance is that the marketplace for landed property has become more complex, involving more actors and informal networks. This also brings inevitable implications for housing-market analysis. To cite Landis et al ( 2002),``even as the economy and capital markets have gone global, housing markets have gone local.'' The stronger the connection between the economy and housing markets, the stronger the competition between locations and the larger the differences in attractiveness between winner and loser locations. Probably all of us have heard the proverbial`location, location, location' when discussing the determinants of urban property markets (for example, Orford, 1999, page 1). However inflated the phrase may be, it is not just a business slogan.

Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Agronomic Iodine Biofortification: A SWOT-AHP Analysis in Northern Uganda

“…AHP is one of the most widely applied Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) tools, owing to its ability to analyze contradictory preferences and quantify and compare qualitative views of stakeholders [ 26 ]. The novelty of the AHP method is that, unlike in the classical multivariable modelling approaches, which generate utility functions, the AHP tool is based on pairwise comparison of preferences [ 27 ], which enables the weighing of each factor against all other factors, one at a time, before determining the overall influence according to the eigenvalue method (priority scoring approach) [ 28 ]. It applies a mathematical approach to solve complex problems in decision making [ 25 ] and has been applied to a variety of areas, including economics, management and policy/strategy design [ 29 , 30 , 31 ].…”

Property sustainable value versus highest and best use analyzes

“…The most gains to be made are in understanding the social aspects (Ahmed, 2011;Manzi, Lucas, Lloyd-Jones, & Allen, 2010). In this case residents choose a place based on two contradiction criteria: on one hand, people want safety, familiarity and avoidance of nuisance; on the other, they want grandeur, excitement and stimuli at the same time (Kauko, 2004).…”

Sustainable Urban Property Development and Neighbourhood Dynamics

“…It is often claimed that 'post-Fordist' times have witnessed a substantial diversification of preferences and a fragmentation of the markets [11]. This has redirected the research efforts away from general (neoclassical) economic models towards more particular models about the drivers of property development and market activity.…”