Modelling value uplift on future transport infrastructure

There is a renewed interest in ‘value capture’ funding for infrastructure in Australian metropolitan planning. There is a direct financial cost of providing infrastructure and there is often a positive externality to landowners surrounding that infrastructure. This nexus has long been a justification for a taxation structure that taps into the latter to fund the former. In the current era of tighter government budgets, this source of funds has become increasingly appealing. However, quantifying the extent to which some infrastructure is capitalised in surrounding property values is an ongoing barrier to an effective but fair value capture mechanism. More importantly, such quantification takes time and resources so is often done after crucial infrastructure planning decisions are made. These are inherently spatial challenges and this chapter outlines how spatial technologies such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Planning Support Systems (PSS) can rapidly estimate the effect of infrastructure on property values. In turn, this can inform decision-makers about the relationship between infrastructure provision and changing property values. The chapter describes the creation and application of a rapid spatial analysis decision support platform using a case study of train infrastructure in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. The platform (a) organises diverse data sets into a coherent, property level database, then (b) uses that database to generate a hedonic price model, determining the impact of transport infrastructure on property prices, and (c) estimates the value uplift generated by a hypothetical train line based on the hedonic price model.