Hedonic Analysis of Housing Prices and Development in Kaunas: Heritage Aspect

Abstract

The urban economists have stressed the importance of various amenities for the attractiveness of urban areas for residents and businesses and built cultural heritage can be considered as one of such amenities, the benefits of which should not be overlooked. This research was aimed to analyze the influence of heritage aspect including the heritage status or features of the building and the historic built environment in general on the real estate prices and development in Kaunas using hedonic price method. Two sets of data were collected for the analysis - general, including heritage buildings and including new construction since 2013. The research has demonstrated that heritage status and the year of construction (as older buildings can be considered having heritage features) have no significant positive influence on the real estate prices. Meanwhile, the location, heritage context and the architectural distinctiveness of new architecture have a direct influence on the real estate prices. The heritage context correlates with architectural quality of new construction as well. This reveals the benefits of heritage context both for the real estate developers and households; however, the study shows the unemployed social-economic potential of historic buildings as generators and maintainers of heritage context.