RISING SEA LEVEL AND POTENTIAL IMPACT ON PROPERTY PRICES AND RESIDENTS � SENTIMENTS ON COASTAL HOUSING IN SINGAPORE.

Abstract

Climate Change and Rising Sea Levels (RSL) have increasingly become a hot topic in recent years. However, its potential impact on real estate is largely unknown as little studies have been conducted to assess the impact that RSL could have on property values and buyers’ sentiments. This paper seeks to investigate the impact that RSL have on buyers’ sentiments on coastal residential properties. A total of 296 survey data was collected to conduct this study and the data consists of 179 from locals not living in coastal housing and 117 from residents living in coastal housing. After running four statistical relationships through Spearman’s rho, it was found that the awareness of RSL does dampen locals and residents’ sentiments on coastal residential properties. It was also found that individuals not living in coastal housing feel more strongly against coastal housing over residents currently living in costal houses.

The study also aims to analyse the potential impact of RSL on the values of coastal residential properties that are located within 400m from the foreshore line using the Hedonic Price Method. The formation of the NCCS (Event 1) and the signing of the Paris Agreement (Event 2) are used as a symbol of heightened awareness of rising sea level. It was found that coastal housing unit price (psm) after Event 1 was 51% more than the housing values before. On the other hand, the unit price after Event 2 was 42% lesser than the housing values before. It can be concluded that as Event 2 is a more recent event, the findings highlighted greater awareness of RSL and more impact on housing values. Overall, this study aims to kickstart research studies relating to Rising Sea Levels and the Real Estate market in Singapore.