The Valuation of Idle Real Estate in Rural Areas: Analysis and Territorial Strategies

Abstract

Knowledge of the environment and its weaknesses is the first step in addressing urban development in a more sustainable direction, seeking, for example, to limit the occupation of new land. This research presents a methodology for identifying unused buildings in rural areas and providing strategies for the recovery and reuse of building heritage. The reuse of idle buildings, which are numerous and widespread in Italian agricultural areas, represents a valid opportunity to contain land occupation, redevelop unused areas (often degraded) and develop employment opportunities and social dynamics (as in the case of nonresidential use). The paper defines an expeditious methodology for the identification and subsequent mapping, on a municipal scale, of the unused building heritage that is external to the consolidated urban fabric. The initial data from a case study for the municipality of Chiari (in Italy) are significant: more than 370 unused real estate structures were identified. A successive analysis identified the individual buildings that were completely unused and proposes an assessment of their potential recovery value. This methodology can be useful for directing municipal urban planning strategies and regulations for the recovery of buildings in rural areas and for environmentally acceptable land utilization.

Rural Buildings for Sustainable Development: A Real Estate Market Analysis in Southern Italy

“…The values in Table 2 show that the price (PRICE) had the strongest positive correlations with the accessibility to the potable water supply network (WS, 0.71), the level of maintenance (LM, 0.69) and the building surface (BS, 0.68). Thus, properties connected to a potable water supply network, in a well-maintained state and with a medium-large building surface were sold at high prices, in line with relevant literature in the field [22,[52][53][54]. The surface ratio of trulli area on the total property area (SR, −0.04) was considered a disincentive to purchase, while the distance from the nearest urban centre (DUC, 0.17) and the area of the annex agricultural land (AS, 0.12) had minimal impact on the purchase decisions.…”

“…This was accomplished through a preliminary focus group that involved ten stakeholders (e.g., practitioners, agents, agronomists, etc.) selected for their deep knowledge of the local rural architecture and rural real estate market, which were supported by the research group that provided thematic scientific literature [22,[52][53][54]. During the initial phase, sales contracts of trulli in Valle d'Itria were presented.…”

“…In this regard, to further investigate how the features may influence the purchase decisions, three additional networks were established, each considering different landscape contexts classified into high, medium and low value zones (Figure 5). These classifications were based on the level of landscape quality of the area where the trulli were located (feature LQ) [54]. Figure 5 showed three networks that enabled us to understand how the landscape quality affected buyers' purchasing preferences.…”