Airport Proximity Effects on Residential Property Values: Market Benefits of Multimodal Accessibility

Proximity to transportation infrastructure is an amenity that adds market value to residential property. However, not all infrastructure adds market value equally. For example, the empirical evidence suggests proximity to rail infrastructure adds more market value than proximity to pedestrian infrastructure, even though surveys show a willingness on the part of buyers to pay for the latter. Further, proximity to transportation infrastructure such as airports may subtract market value from residential property due to the disamenity of noise. In order to isolate the amenity or disamenity effect of proximity to airports, this study adopts a multilevel approach to residential property transactions, which encompasses the complement of air, bus, pedestrian, and rail infrastructure in an entire region. Analysis of thirteen years of residential property transactions near two international airports advances knowledge on the amenity effect of proximity to airports in light of the amenity effect of pedestrian infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, subregional differences in the amenity effect of proximity are evident due to differences in land use near the respective airports. The latter result suggests airports are not necessarily detrimental to the accrual of value in proximate residential property markets. The latter result also calls into question public policy interventions to mitigate regional disamenity effects of airport proximity evident elsewhere in the empirical literature.