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Does crime in parks affect apartment prices?
KTH.
2015 (English)In: Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, ISSN 1404-3858, E-ISSN 1651-2340, Vol. 16, no 1, p. 97-121Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

A park is a desirable feature when people are purchasing a property. Buyers are ready to pay more for properties surrounded by natural amenities, such as a pleasant park. However, if a park is targeted by crime and disorder, then it may have a negative effect on people's appraisal. The aim of this study is to reach a better understanding of how parks and crime rates affect housing prices taking into account residential properties and parks type. Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is used as the case study. The methodology has two stages. An extensive field work was performed in a selected number of parks to help characterize the parks in Stockholm. This information was gathered with secondary data about parks using Geographic Information System. This pre-assessment was later followed by the analysis of 2008s apartment sales using hedonic modelling to assess the effect of parks alone and in combination with crime rates. Results suggest that the effect of parks on prices vary by park type (increased with, e.g. features of cultural and national interest and decreased with ball games or boating facilities) while an aggregated measure of parks lowers overall apartment prices. More interestingly, findings show that the price of apartments tends to be discounted in areas where parks have relatively high rates of violence and vandalism.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2015. Vol. 16, no 1, p. 97-121
Keywords [en]
GIS, green areas, hedonic modelling, offences, spatial error, spatial lag, Social Sciences, Samhällsvetenskap
National Category
Civil Engineering Economics and Business
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-31227DOI: 10.1080/14043858.2015.1009674OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-31227DiVA, id: diva2:1376467
Available from: 2019-12-09 Created: 2019-12-09 Last updated: 2019-12-09Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Assessment of crime and safety issues in parks
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Assessment of crime and safety issues in parks
2015 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The aim of the thesis is to obtain a better understanding of the importance of parks for urban quality, particularly for safety. This is achieved in two ways; first, by assessing parks’ impact on the perceived quality of the urban environment (whether it is incorporated into housing prices or not) in Stockholm. Second, the study investigates whether safety in parks may be assessed using principles of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) using a high-crime park in Stockholm’s inner city. The thesis starts with an introduction to the theme, with a brief discussion of background theory, literature review, the study area and the methods. Then, it reports the results of the articles included in the thesis and discusses their main contributions to the field of research. A mixed methods approach utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Regression models and a Geographic Information System (GIS) were used in Paper I, which aims to clarify how park proximity affects housing prices and, when considering residential properties and park type, how crime rates in parks affect housing prices. Findings show that the further away an apartment is located from a park, the higher the discount on its price effect, but this effect (dependent on the park type), as an accumulated measure of parks, lowers prices or is negligible. Paper II assesses the use and adequacy of CPTED principles to guide the assessment of safety conditions of an urban park. The historical development of CPTED is presented followed by an analysis of a case study, Tantolunden, in Stockholm. Site observations, crime mapping, people count and interviews were conducted. Results show many entrances in this particular park defy the principles of access control and in turn impose limitations on park maintenance. Findings also show that interrupted sight lines create limited surveillance. The paper concludes by identifying the potentialities and challenges of CPTED principles when applied to safety in parks. Findings presented in this thesis are relevant for many stakeholders in society as results show the variation in crime and safety in urban parks, and the way they can be assessed and tackled.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2015. p. 35
Keywords
Green spaces, perceived safety, GIS, hedonic modelling, crime mapping, CPTED, Engineering and Technology, Teknik och teknologier
National Category
Civil Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-31221 (URN)9789187111051 (ISBN)
Available from: 2019-12-09 Created: 2019-12-09 Last updated: 2019-12-09Bibliographically approved
2. Park Matters: Studies on Safety and Property Values
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Park Matters: Studies on Safety and Property Values
2017 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This study develops a better understanding of the nature of urban parks from a safety perspective in two international contexts. To achieve this aim, the study is divided into two geographical scales (a macro scale and a micro scale) that test a set of quantitative and qualitative research methods. The macro-scale analysis provides an overall view of the effects of parks in the neighbourhood and at the city level. A particular focus is given to the impact of parks on housing prices. Overall, the findings show that parks function as an amenity that contributes to urban quality, which in turn influences property prices in Stockholm. However, this effect depends on a number of factors such as park type, location, and the level of safety and security of the parks. Safety also matters: Parks embedded in area with high-crime rates are less valued than in areas with low-crime rates. The micro-scale of study focuses on parks as a unit of analysis and looks at the environment of parks and how it triggers crime and affects people’s safety. The first analysis is based on whether—and, if so, how—park environments affect safety (crime occurrence) using the principles of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) as an inventory tool in a park in an area with a high-crime rate in Stockholm, Sweden. Building on the methodology from the first study, the second study investigates the nature of women-only parks (WOPs) in Karachi, Pakistan, by looking at both the environment of the parks and the users’ and non-users’ perceptions of safety. Regardless of context, the findings show that the safety conditions of a park are highly associated with the park’s environment (design and management features). Of importance to park safety are park size in relation to the number of access routes (entrance and exit points), the opportunities for surveillance in relation to the maintenance and the lighting conditions in parks. A clear lesson is that a CPTED-informed park design promotes guardianship and therefore should be encouraged, regardless of whether it is located in Stockholm or Karachi. However, the urban context does matter to park safety conditions and is highly dependent on the local, city-wide, and national contexts in which the park is embedded.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2017. p. 101
Keywords
Urban parks, safety, hedonic modelling, CPTED, and women-only parks, Engineering and Technology, Teknik och teknologier
National Category
Civil Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-31224 (URN)9789185783823 (ISBN)
Available from: 2019-12-09 Created: 2019-12-09 Last updated: 2019-12-09Bibliographically approved

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