Assessing the impacts of environmental aesthetics on residential property values using the hedonic price approach

Since the ancient times, housing has been a major necessity for sheltering, security, comfort, socialization and self-expression, and aesthetics. Housing, which covered the largest part of human and urban life, has been an important research topic for various disciplines. The research on house prices has been investigated with variables related to general economic developments, consumer characteristics, legal issues, location issues, physical characteristics related to neighborhood and house. Previous studies ignored the variables related to aesthetic needs or examined the importance of aesthetic needs on house prices with limited variables.Previous studies were mostly conducted in United States and European countries. In Turkey, such studies are very limited. Thus, this research aimed to assess the impacts of environmental aesthetics on house prices. The empirical study was conducted in Izmir on rented and sold apartments.48 rented and 52 sold apartments were selected in Karsiyaka, Izmir. First, data related to sale and rental prices and physical characteristics of those apartments were collected via 18 real estate agents. Then, the apartments and their environments were photographed and a survey was prepared to investigate the aesthetic value, which are related to conceptual, formal and symbolic aesthetic variables of each apartment. The surveys were applied to 101 participants in a high school in Izmir. The data, which was obtained from real estate agents and aesthetic surveys, was analyzed with hedonic price method.According to the results, some of the environmental aesthetic variables, desirability, complexity and upkeep of environment, were correlated with house prices. The findings of this study have applied value in planning to design better environments for people. Also the findings are important to open up a discussion on the economic values of aesthetics variables related to the physical environment.