House prices and accessibility: The testing of relationships within the Belfast Urban Area

The debate surrounding the sustainability of urban areas and the need to reduce dependency upon the car as the primary mode of transportation has rekindled interest in the relationship between accessibility, price and location of owner occupied housing. Traditionally, attempts at quantification have used hedonic analysis employing straight-line distance measurements to focal points such as the CBD as an indicator of accessibility. This paper focuses upon factors affecting the price structure of residential property in the Belfast Urban Area, examining the relative influence of property characteristics, socio-economic factors and the impact of accessibility. The model employs an accessibility index computed for each of 182 traffic zones and uses transaction data for a sample of 2648 residential properties sold during 1996. Results indicate that accessibility is of little significance in explaining variation in house prices at a city-wide scale but at a sub-market level, particularly in lower-income areas, accessibility can be an important influence. The analysis highlights the importance of investigation at a sub-market level and draws conclusions regarding the complexity of relationships within an urban area.