Hedonic Approach to Vertical Residential Rentals in the Brazilian Amazon: The Case of Belém, Pará

Abstract

This study set out to identify and analyze the factors that influence the formation of rental prices for residential apartments in the city of Belém. The approach adopted was based on the hedonic price theory, which considers that the rental price of an apartment reflects the implicit prices of its attributes—structural, locational, and neighborhood quality. The sample used consisted of 259 observations, corresponding to the rental advertisements of the representative apartments in each building. The ordinary least squares (OLS), spatial lag model (SLM), and geographically weighted regression (GWR) techniques were used in the statistical analysis in this study. The results of the OLS model showed statistical significance between the attributes analyzed and the rental price of the apartments. In turn, the SLM indicated that the structural attributes have an impact on the rental prices of neighboring apartments, configuring a contagion effect in the real estate market. The GWR model showed that there was no spatial heterogeneity in the effects of the determinants on apartment rental prices throughout the sample.