Assessing the relationship between walkability and property value: a case study of Indirapuram

Abstract

This study answers a very crucial question- “Does walkability affect property value?” Property value refers to the most probable price that a given property brings in an open market transaction. It is a common belief that property value is based on the dynamics of supply and demand however, such postulates are naive and incomplete as there are various social and physical parameters which define the property value. For the purpose of this study, walkability as a parameter has been considered. Walkability can be defined in its rudimentary form as the conduciveness of an area for pedestrian movement. It is a salient concept in urban design and planning and has several environment, health and economic benefits. It is often related to attractiveness of an area and nowadays, a tremendous amount of stress is being put upon compact and pedestrian friendly development. Indirapuram is considered as the study area as it has seen an unprecedented growth in real estate in the past decade and is still expanding continuously. Moreover, due to its large working class population and their dependency on public transportation such as metro and bus, this area exhibits a substantial degree of reliance on walkability and related infrastructure. Thus, Indirapuram provides with an opportunity as it can consider various dimensions of development and select as per its needs and benefits in future. For the purpose of this study, the site is divided into eight clusters using K-means clustering based on eleven variables and thereafter, one of the clusters is used for subsequent analysis. These analysis are performed sector wise in the selected cluster. The main objective of this study is to establish a relationship between walkability and housing price through empiricism. The study provides assessment of walkability and current pedestrian infrastructure present in Indirapuram based on i) Field analysis and ii) Pedestrian perception analysis. The results of the walkability analysis is then used to analogise with the property value and establish a causal relationship to predict the magnitude of this effect. Both the correlation and regression statistic tools are used to get an idea about the nature of the relationship and to measure the intensity of the aforesaid relationship respectively. The walkability analysis using the field survey and pedestrian perception interview has given a walkscore to each sector. Also, the variation in property value is demonstrated sector wise for the ease of this study. The link between the two and the extent of it is then used to predict the prospective property values in case of improvement in walkability. Lastly, in order to show the benefit, a low performing sector on the walkability analysis has been selected. Different scenarios of improvement have been considered based on the walkability analysis conducted. The outcome with respect to improvement in walk score and related increase in property value for each of the scenarios is clearly manifested to address the question being asked in the beginning.