Beyond proximity and price: How planning practices shape the residential impacts of urban green spaces

Urban green spaces are increasingly promoted as key components of sustainable urban development and are frequently associated with enhanced residential attractiveness and housing value. However, existing research continues to explain these relationships primarily through proximity-based and hedonic approaches, paying comparatively limited attention to the institutional processes through which environmental qualities become translated into residential significance. This paper develops and empirically examines the concept of planning-mediated residential valorisation, arguing that the residential impacts of urban green spaces are produced through recursive interactions between planning decisions, institutional recognition and representational practices rather than through environmental quality or spatial proximity alone. Drawing on a qualitative comparative case study of four green space-residential development pairs in Porto (Portugal), the study combines field observation, planning and policy document analysis, and residential marketing materials within a theory-informed qualitative multicriteria diagnostic framework operationalising four dimensions of planning mediation: ecological qualities, infrastructural integration, institutional recognition and representational practices. The findings show that similar ecological conditions generate markedly different residential trajectories depending on how planning institutions construct, recognise and communicate the strategic significance of urban green spaces. Cross-case comparison identifies four recurrent pathways of planning-mediated residential valorisation, demonstrating that residential relevance emerges through cumulative institutional processes rather than automatic environmental effects. The paper contributes to planning theory by introducing planning mediation as the institutional mechanism linking urban greening and residential valorisation, complementing proximity-based approaches while advancing debates on green gentrification, spatial justice and green infrastructure governance. The proposed analytical framework offers a transferable basis for comparative research and supports more reflexive and equity-oriented planning of urban green infrastructure. • Planning mediation explains residential green space valorisation beyond proximity. • Residential impacts emerge through recursive institutional and representational processes. • A qualitative diagnostic framework operationalises planning-mediated valorisation. • Four planning-mediated residential valorisation pathways are identified. • The framework supports more equitable and planning-sensitive urban greening.