ARE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS AMENITIES TOO? EVIDENCE FROM RELOCATION OF INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Schools have long been regarded as amenities and their ability to command price premium have been widely acknowledge through past literatures. However little studies had been done specifically on international schools and their impact on the neighbourhood. This research paper posits that international schools, unlike local schools, are considered as disamenity. Disamenable effects such as noise, traffic congestion and increased density outweighs the amenable effects such as prestige and lower crime rate that schools usually carry with them. As a result, properties within proximity of international school are considered as negative externalities and consequently suffer from price discount in value. This paper will also determine the effect of international school on both private landed and private non- landed properties. This study employs both Difference-in-Difference (DID) and Triple Difference (DDD) to calculate the differential effect of a change in event on the various interaction terms. Overall, it can be concluded that properties within proximity of an international school suffer greater disamenable effects as compared to those located further. In addition, landed properties tend to be more negatively affected by international school as compared to non-landed properties. However, it is noted that in an undeveloped neighbourhood, international school can act as a catalyst to bring in more developments thus being regarded as an amenity. However, with time, the amenable effect will diminish as international schools are unable to benefit the majority local residents.