EFFECT OF PROXIMITY TO INTRA-TOWN CYCLING NETWORKS ON RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PRICES

Abstract

To achieve Singapore’s car-lite future, the government has been investing heavily on promoting a modal shift from motor vehicular travel to a sustainable culture of cycling and walking. To do this, the government intends to construct Intra-town Cycling Networks (ICN) in every HDB town by 2030, in addition to expanding existing ICNs and Park Connector Networks. Cycling is an efficient and sustainable form of transport that provides substantial health benefits to riders. Widescale transition into cycling, especially for short-distance trips, has been proven to result in significant reductions in environmental pollution and road congestions. However, existing literature regarding the economic benefits of newly constructed cycling infrastructure on housing markets has been sparse. Hence, this study hopes to uncover possible price effects of newly completed ICN on surrounding housing values to determine whether homeowners and residents have ascertained these cycling networks as value-adding or not. This paper estimates a multivariate hedonic pricing model incorporated with DiD modelling to investigate the impacts of proximity to newly built ICN on resale values of surrounding private residential condominiums in HDB towns. 4,264 resale transactions from the period of 2009 to 2020 were retrieved from URA REALIS Portal for this study. After controlling for inflation, various spatial and structural variables, it was found that condominiums that were within the treatment radius of 100 metres to the closest ICN cycling lane experienced a statistically significant 1.85% depreciation of resale value, relative to the control group that contained condominiums situated 101m - 300m away from the closest ICN. Hence, private residential homeowners seem to view the newly built cycling infrastructure as slight disamenities to the existing urban environment near their homes. Keywords: Intra-town Cycling Networks, Cycling, Housing Prices, Resale Prices, Sustainable Transport, Hedonic Pricing Model, Difference-in-Differences