Valuing urban green amenities with an inequality lens

Considering rapid urbanization worldwide, concern is growing that the resulting loss of green space affects welfare negatively. This study assesses how implicit prices of green amenities differ across apartments in different price groups to assess distributional impact of urban green amenities. Additionally, the paper proposes adjustments to enhance the standard hedonic model and increase comparability of estimates across study areas. Sales data for 6614 apartments in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden, an area that is relatively more prone to land conversion, were combined with GIS data on green urban areas and assessed in a simple log-linear model and quantile regression model. The results suggest that forested area even in a in a city with abundant green areas, have an impact on apartment prices. The price effect of green amenities differs strongly across both categories of 'green area' such as parks and forests, as well as, between the mean and the ends of the distribution of apartment prices. The proposed adjustments and results could be of use to other study areas.