The Role of Subjective Perceptions and Objective Measurements of the Urban Environment in Explaining House Prices in Greater London: A Multi-Scale Urban Morphology Analysis

• Published in: ISPRS international journal of geo-information Vol. 12; no. 6; p. 249
• Main Authors: Yang, Sijie, Krenz, Kimon, Qiu, Waishan, Li, Wenjing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-06-2023
• Subjects: Analysis; Built environment; Central business districts; Economic impact; house price; Housing prices; Impact analysis; Influence; Machine learning; Measurement; Morphology; Neighborhoods; Perceptions; Physical characteristics; Regression analysis; Regression models; space syntax; street view image; Streets; subjective perception; Surveys; Urban areas; Urban environments; Urban planning; Variables; United Kingdom; China; Germany
• ISSN: 2220-9964; 2220-9964
• DOI: 10.3390/ijgi12060249

House prices have long been closely related to the built environment of cities, yet whether the subjective perception (SP) of these environments has a differing effect on prices at multiple urban scales is unclear. This study sheds light on the impact of people’s SP of the urban environment on house prices in a multi-scale urban morphology analysis. We trained a machine learning (ML) model to predict people’s SP of the urban environment around properties across Greater London with survey response data from an online survey evaluating people’s SP of street view image (SVI) and linked this to house price data. This information was used to construct a hedonic price model (HPM) and to evaluate the association between SP and house price data in a series of linear regression models controlling location information and urban morphological characteristics such as street network centralities at multiple urban scales, quantified using space syntax (SS) methods. The findings show that SP influences house prices, but this influence differs depending on the urban scale of analysis. Particularly, a sense of ‘enclosure’ and ‘comfort’ are important factors influencing house price variation. This study contributes by introducing SP of the urban environment as a new dimension into the traditional HPM and by exploring the economic impact of SP on the house price market at multiple urban scales.