Real estate is a golden hen and can bring loads of money to ones dealing with it. The value of each property is strongly influenced by many factors like its position, size, its surroundings and also the landscaping around it.
Basics:
A residential area is a land use in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single family housing, multi-family residential, or mobile homes. Zoning for residential use may permit some services or work opportunities or may totally exclude business and industry. [1]
Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land. Landscaping is both science and art, and requires good observation and design skills. A good landscaper understands the elements of nature and construction and blends them accordingly. [2]
A 3 to 5% increase in the sales prices of-single-family houses in Athens, Georgia, was associated with the presence of trees in their landscaping, according to data from real estate records on over 800 house sales from 1978 to 1980. The average house sold for about $47,000 and had five front-yard trees visible in its Multiple Listing Service photographs. An average sales price increase of $1,700 to $2,100 was associated with the presence of these trees. This increase in property value represents an income of over $200,000 a year to the city in property tax revenues. [3]
This hedonic study investigates the effect of landscaping on house values, based on a detailed field survey of 760 single-family homes sold between 1993 and 2000 on the territory of the Quebec Urban Community. Environmental information includes thirty-one landscaping attributes of both houses and their immediate environment. By and large, a positive tree cover differential between the property and its immediate neighborhood, provided it is not excessive, translates into a higher house value. Findings also suggest that the positive price impact of a good tree cover in the visible surroundings is all the more enhanced in areas with a high proportion of retired persons. Finally, a high percentage of lawn cover as well as features such as flower arrangements, rock plants, the presence of a hedge, etc. all command a substantial market premium. [4]
All the usual methods for valuing non-market benefits and costs may be applied to the aesthetic values of urban trees. However, evaluation has most usually been undertaken by one of two apparently dissimilar methods. The expert approach uses a mixture of measurement and judgement. Different versions of the approach have different quantitative input, produce divergent results, and theoretical justifications of their cash value are lacking. The hedonic approach attempts to derive cash values from house prices. Here too problems of quantification arise, in choice of appropriate variables, in the form of relationships and in interaction of variables. An approach using the human eye’s ability to synthesise disparate variables may overcome these problems, but there remain problems of collinearity between environmental and demographic variables. At least explicit recognition of judgement in the process allows open discussion of these problems.[5]
The majority of urban forest benefits represent non-consumptive use values, which include benefits derived from pleasant landscape, clean air, peace and quiet and screening, as well as recreational activities. The hedonic pricing method examines external benefits and costs of urban forests associated with housing. This investigation studied whether and how urban forest benefits are capitalized in property prices. It also searches for suitable variables for describing the green space benefits in hedonic pricing studies. Results indicate that urban forests are an appreciated environmental characteristic and that their benefits are reflected in the property prices Proximity of watercourses and wooded recreation areas as well as increasing proportion of total forested area in the housing district had a positive influence on apartment price. However, the effect of small forest parks was not clear. The range of the variable values was small, because there were many small wooded green spaces in the study locale. In addition, data concerning the views from the apartment or the composition of the forests was not available. [6]
The notion that parks have a positive impact on proximate property values was recognized in the debates surrounding the pioneering of large urban parks in England in the first half of the nineteenth century, and subsequently in the spread of this movement to the US in the latter half of that century. The empirical basis for these early assertions was rudimentary and naïve. This paper reviews contemporary research using the more advanced analytical procedures now available to social scientists that has examined this issue. The findings confirm the initial rationale and suggest that a positive impact of 20% on property values abutting or fronting a passive park is a reasonable starting point guideline for estimating such a park’s impact. [7]
Conclusion:
Every property buyer likes to live in a healthy surrounding. Parks surrounding it can significantly increase its value and help it’s sales. Recreation activities, clean air, pleasant landscape,peace and quiet are contrubuting hugely to residential property values.
Refernces:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residential_area
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscaping
[3] “Residential Property Values Improved by Landscaping with Trees” by: Anderson, L. M.; Cordell, H. K.
[4] ”Landscaping and House Values: An Empirical Investigation” by: Des Rosiers François, Thériault Marius, Kestens Yan, Villeneuve Paul
[5] ”Quantifying the aesthetic benefits of urban forestry” by: Colin Price
[6] ”The amenity value of the urban forest: an application of the hedonic pricing method” by: Liisa Tyrväinen
[7] ”The impact of parks on property values: empirical evidence from the past two decades in the United States” by: John L. Cromptona
Special thanks goes to http://www.structureflex.com.au for “Residential property values improved by landscaping” article suggestion.
