Impact of bus rapid transit on residential property prices in Auckland, New Zealand

Authors

Olga Filippova
Mingyue Sheng

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2020

Subject Area

place - australasia, place - urban, mode - bus rapid transit, land use - impacts, policy - congestion

Keywords

Bus rapid transit, Residential property values, Land use, Difference-in-differences, Spatio-temporal autoregressive (STAR), Spatial autoregressive error term hedonic model

Abstract

Dubbed ‘The City of Cars’, congestion is a prominent issue in Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland's first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system - the Northern Busway - was implemented in 2008. The 6.2-km (km) busway network services the northern suburbs and provides a link to the Central Business District (CBD). This research aims to assess the impact of the Northern Busway on nearby residential property values. Spatio-temporal autoregressive (STAR) modelling is used to examine the accessibility impacts of the BRT under the difference – in – differences (DID) framework alongside a typical OLS and a strictly spatial model. We have observed two main findings. Firstly, the average sale price for properties in the treatment group (within 800 m of the Northern Busway) increased by approximately 3.69% as a result of the opening of the Northern Busway. Second, consistent with previous literature, we find that OLS estimates suffer from high spatial autocorrelation bias, while co-integrating spatial and temporal dependencies within a STAR model improves the precision of estimation. While the models produced a relatively modest accessibility premium on house prices, given traditional importance of private cars coupled with high income levels in the case study area, it would take a generational shift to make a significant impact on house prices as the area becomes more desirable due to reduced traffic congestion/travel time.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.

Comments

Journal of Transport Geography home Page:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09666923

Recommended Citation

Filippova, O., & Sheng, M. (2020). Impact of bus rapid transit on residential property prices in Auckland, New Zealand. Journal of Transport Geography, Vol. 86, 102780.