Space Syntax as a Tool to Assess Residential Property Investment Value - Literature review Example

The term space syntax is used to refer to the methods and supporting theoretical background used to analyse spatial configurations especially for human land use purposes. Hillier (1999) develops the concept of space syntax as an alternative to existing methods of looking at architectural design and analysis. Hillier and Hanson (1984) suggest that previous architectural theories borrow extensively from other disciplines such as social sciences, psychology and others. On the other hand, space syntax provides a novel means of architectural explanation that contributes to other disciplines. Space syntax has been proposed as the new analytical framework of dealing with architectural design and analysis issues (Hillier, 1999). Space syntax has been employed widely in recent years to various architectural and other uses. More notably, space syntax has been employed to analyse navigability (Jiang & Claramunt, 2002) (Penn & Turner, 2001) (Holscher et al., 2012), to correlate spatial layouts to social phenomenon such as crime (Nubani & Wineman, 2005) (Jiang et al., 2000) (Jones & Fanek, 1997), sales per unit area (Moirongo, 2002) (Wang & Tsai, 2007) (Min et al., 2007) and traffic flow (Thomson, 2003) (Turner, 2007) (Jiang et al., 2008). In addition to these uses, space syntax has been employed to assess the value of land including residential and commercial land (Min et al., 2007) (Wang & Tsai, 2007) (Enstrom & Netzell, 2008) (Kim & Sohn, 2002). This literature review will deal with the utilisation of space syntax to assess the value of residential property for investment purposes. Various theories and models developed under the space syntax framework or its derivatives will be looked into detail for this purpose. There is little doubt that there has been historical interest in the investment value of land for residential purposes (Chiaradia et al., 2009). A number of models were in use to assess the investment value of residential property including (but not limited to) Alonso’s adaptation of von Thunen’s agricultural land model to urban spaces (Alonso, 1964), Muth’s model (Muth, 1969), Mill’s model (Mills, 1972) and Fujita’s models (Fujita, 2008) (Fujita & Thisse, 2008). All of these models rely on a mono-centric urban model in which businesses and individuals have defined capacities for consumption. The consumption in this case refers to consumption of land (for both businesses and individuals) as well as consumption of transportation means to transport people and resources to the central business district (CBD). The central premise is that individuals and businesses will try to procure land as close as possible to the CBD. The hedonic pricing model is most commonly applied in order to assess the price of property for such models. Hence, all of the models discussed above contend that distance from the CBD can be seen as an index of spatial accessibility (Chiaradia et al., 2009). Differences in these models arise from the use of dependant variable such as rent or transaction price of property as well as the use of explanatory variables such as amenities, security etc. However, such models tend to fall short since they expound equal values to areas with differing accessibility characteristics and location based aspects. The greatest pitfall of these models is the creation and expansion of the CBD which tends to fall outside the limits of these models (Chiaradia et al., 2009). In contrast, the space syntax based models tend to define residential property value using context specific criteria that are in turn used to define the spatial accessibility of the concerned property. A number of different criteria can be used on the demand side and the supply side of such models. However, the most common supply side criteria are technology and transport spatial network while the more common demand side criteria are socio-economic acceptability, personal values and natural constraints (Levy & Lussault, 2003). Most research on the space syntax based residential property investment models are highly context specific. Researchers in Israel investigated the effects of neighbourhood amenities such as open spaces, absence of busy roads etc. in order to create a space syntax model to predict residential property value. The research showed that open spaces and other such amenities encouraged investment into residential properties including late end modifications such as to roofs etc. to make these properties more attractive. These factors were coupled in the study to predict the market value of old and new houses in various neighbourhoods with reliability (Portnov et al., 2005). Another research conducted around the concept of New Urbanism found that consumers of residential property added value to property based on street layout as well as neighbourhood composition. The study also found that highly connected streets were favoured by people looking to invest in residential property. Although two different methods have been employed in order to assess residential property value but both methods conclusively showed that higher street connectivity impact residential property value positively (Matthews & Turnbull, 2007). Other research ascribes that the monetised value of a street or other such transportation link can be described using the time value of each ascribed link, congestion due to traffic and transport speed. This research again depends on the space syntax framework and contends that residential property value is directly and positively affected by street design that promotes ease of access and dissuades congestion both in terms of human and motor vehicle traffic (Chiaradia, 2007). Ahmed Saeid (2011) has related the dual economic models of mono-centric and poly-centric cities by utilising the urban morphology theory of space syntax. The research concluded that urban spatial patterns provided for two accessibility forms namely global accessibility and local accessibility. Global accessibility was attributed to a reduction in trips from the city centre to the city edge for a mono-centric city and a reduction in trips from the city’s sub-centres to its various edges for poly-centric cities. Local accessibility was attributed to reduction in trips between the local sub-centres and the zones of residence. It was also found that residential land value depended on mean depth for global accessibility but it depended on local integration and connectivity for local accessibility (Saeid, 2011). Research conducted in ten different town centres and their localities indicated that investment from the public realm to improve amenities lead to two significant effects on neighbouring residential property. The rent value of the adjoining residential properties tends to increase long with their overall property value when public investment is done in the town centres (Chiaradia et al., 2009). This study clearly indicates that along with connectivity and residential property characteristics, other exogenous factors such as public realm investment cause an appreciation in residential property value. The space syntax framework also provides that the value of residential property and commercial property tends to differ due to differentiated factors. Hillier (2009) has indicated that the economic value of commercial property is more closely associated to choice while the economic value of residential property is more closely related to connectivity. While the space syntax framework is useful at delineating residential property value for most situations, but it has come under criticism for certain incalculable aspects. For one thing, space syntax fails to accommodate for land height (such as skyscrapers) and fails to account for boundary conditions completely. Moreover, pedestrian choices come through as contradictions under different models of the space syntax framework. The results of this literature review indicate that the premise of space syntax theory that residential property value is context specific rings true since these pieces of research were conducted in distinct geographic regions. It must also be indicated that political environments, socio-economic factors and other allied phenomenon are also differentiated for the referenced pieces of research. Space syntax accommodates for a number of residential property value scenarios reliably enough without the drawbacks of the conventional property valuation models. Bibliography Alonso, W., 1964. Location and land use. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Chiaradia, A., 2007. Emergency route choice behaviour, motorway and trunk road network: the Nantes contribution. In 6th International Space Syntax Symposium. Istabul, Turkey, 2007. Technical University of Istanbul. Chiaradia, A., Hillier, B., Barnes, Y. & Schwander, C., 2009. Residential Property Value Patterns in London. In Koch, D., Marcus, L. & Steen, J., eds. Proceedings of the 7th International Space Syntax Symposium. Stockholm, Sweden, 2009. KTH. Chiaradia, A., Hillier, B., Schwander, C. & Wedderburn, M., 2009. Spatial Centrality, Economic Vitality / Viability: Compositional and Spatial Effects in Greater London. In Koch, D., Marcus, L. & Steen, J., eds. Proceedings of the 7th International Space Syntax Symposium. Stockholm, Sweden, 2009. KTH. Enstrom, R. & Netzell, O., 2008. Can Space Syntax Help Us in Understanding the Intraurban Office Rent Pattern? Accessibility and Rents in Downtown Stockholm. The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 36(3), pp.289-305. Fujita, M., 2008. Urban Economic Theory: Land Use and City Size. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fujita, M. & Thisse, J.F., 2008. Economics of Agglomeration: Cities, Industrial Location and Regional Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hillier, B., 1999. Space is the Machine: A Configurational Theory of Architecture. London: Cambridge University Press. Hillier, B., 1999. The hidden geometry of deformed grids: or, why space syntax works, when it looks as though it shouldn't. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 26, pp.169-91. Hillier, B., 2009. Spatial Sustainability in Cities: Organic Patterns and Sustainable Forms. In Koch, D., Marcus, L. & Steen, J., eds. Proceedings of the 7th International Space Syntax Symposium. Stockholm, Sweden, 2009. KTH. Hillier, B. & Hanson, J., 1984. The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Holscher, C., Brosamle, M. & Vrachliotis, G., 2012. Challenges in Multi-level Wayfinding: A Case-Study with Space Syntax Technique. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 39(1), pp.63-82. Jiang, B. & Claramunt, C., 2002. Integration of Space Syntax into GIS: New Perspectives for Urban Morphology. Transactions in GIS, 6(3), pp.295-309. Jiang, B., Claramunt, C. & Klarqvist, B., 2000. An integration of space syntax into GIS for modelling urban spaces. JAG, 2(3/4), pp.161-71. Jiang, B., Zhao, S. & Yin, J., 2008. Self-organised Natural Roads for Predicting Traffic Flow: A Sensitivity Study. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, (7). Jones, M.A. & Fanek, M.F., 1997. Crime in the Urban Environment. In Proceedings of First International Symposium on Space Syntax. London, 1997. University College London. Kim, H.-K. & Sohn, D.W., 2002. An analysis of the relationship between land use density of office buildings and urban street configuration: Case studies of two areas in Seoul by spacesyntax analysis. Cities, 19(6), pp.409-18. Levy, J. & Lussault, M., 2003. Dictionary of Geography for the Space Society. Paris: Belin. Matthews, J.W. & Turnbull, G.K., 2007. Neighborhood Street Layout and Property Value: The Interaction of Accessibility and Land Use Mix. The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 35(2), pp.111-41. Mills, E.S., 1972. Studies in the structure of the urban economy. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Min, K.M., Moon, J.M. & Kim, Y.O., 2007. The Effect of Spatial Configuration on Land Use and Land Value in Seoul. In Proceedings of Sixth International Space Syntax Symposium. Istanbul, 2007. Moirongo, B.O., 2002. Urban public spaces patterns: human distribution and the design of sustainable city centers with reference to Nairobi CBD. Urban Design International, 7(3-4), pp.205-16. Muth, R.F., 1969. Cities and Housing. Chicago: Univeristy of Chicago Press. Narvaez, L., Penn, A. & Griffiths, S., 2012. Space Syntax Economics: decoding accessibility using property value and housing price in Cardiff, Wales. In Proceedings of the 8th International Space Syntax Symposium. Cardiff, 2012. Nubani, L. & Wineman, J., 2005. The Role of Space Syntax in Identifying the Relationship between Space and Crime. In 5th Space Syntax Symposium on Space Syntax. Delft, Holland, 2005. Penn, A. & Turner, A., 2001. Space Syntax Based Agent Simulation. Simulation Report. London: University College London Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, UCL. Portnov, B.A., Odish, Y. & Fleishman, L., 2005. Factors affecting housing modifications and housing pricing: A case study of four residential neighbourhoods in Haifa, Israel. JRER, 27(4), pp.371-407. Ratti, C., 2004. Urban texture and space syntax: some inconsistencies. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 31, pp.1-12. Saeid, A., 2011. Space Syntax as a Tool to Assess Land Value. In R. Sietchiping, ed. Innovative Land and Property Tax. Nairobi, Kenya: UNON. pp.172-88. Thomson, R.C., 2003. Bending the axial line: smoothly continuous road centre-line segments as a basis for road network analysis. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Space Syntax Symposium. London, 2003. Turner, A., 2007. From axial to road-center lines: a new representation for space syntax and a new model of route choice for transport network analysis. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 34(3), pp.539-55. Wang, W.-C. & Tsai, H.-W., 2007. Natural Movement versus Land Value. Short Paper. Seoul: SSS SSS. Webster, C., 2010. Pricing accessibility. Paper. Cardiff University. Read More