Multimodal Accessibility Premiums in Housing Prices across Canada

Keywords: multimodal accessibility, transport accessibility, spatial econometrics, hedonic models, transit-oriented development
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

The transportation accessibility benefits afforded by multiple transportation modes play a fundamental role in determining property values and land use. However, there are challenges associated with understanding the capitalization of network-level accessibility and competition between modes in property values. This research calculates regional gravity-based measures of accessibility to employment by car and transit that include mode share proportions on the origin and destination side of commuting to capture their relative competitiveness for attracting and facilitating commuting trips across Canada’s 12 largest metropolitan regions. We also control for aspects of transit-oriented development and design. Spatial econometric model results suggest that accessibility is generally valued with both car and transit plus walking access types capitalized into property values across most cities, although there is evidence of moderate multicollinearity between the unweighted car and transit access scores. In contrast, the origin and destination mode use weighted measures offer advantages in terms of model performance. These models show that accessibility premiums are generally linked with tradeoffs between car and transit access, with the highest overall premiums found for properties in locations with the highest levels of transit access and transit use for commuting.