The Value of Urban Quality: a proposal for a hybrid approach

The quality of the built environment is a multidimensional notion, as it deals with the land use patterns and mixes, the spatial and temporal distribution of activities, the accessibility to services, the open spaces and green areas, the air quality, the arrangement and appearance of the physical elements of urban design. Although several studies have listed the environmental, social and economic benefits of good urban design for many stakeholders, there is a small body of literature on their monetary value. Most of the scholars focus on the impact of open spaces, urban parks, and amenities on residential property values, without providing a real monetary estimation of the quality of public goods and services. The present paper focuses on the contribution of urban quality on real estate value. Given the spatial nature of the problem and the multifaceted aspects to be considered, a hybrid evaluation approach has been defined by combining Spatial Multicriteria Analysis with Hedonic Price Method. In order to explore the impact of urban quality improvements on real estate value, the proposed evaluation approach has been applied to three urban districts in the city of Milan (Italy), with different location features.