Identifying the Impact on Land Prices of Replacing At-grade or Elevated Railways with Underground Subways in the Seoul Metropolitan Area

Abstract

The Seoul metropolitan government (SMG) is considering the replacement of at-grade or elevated railways penetrating the city's central area with underground subways. The railways once played a key role in forming main transit corridors in the early development stages of the city of Seoul. Now, however, they are a burden in the efforts of the SMG to enhance livability in the vicinity of urban railways. Over the past few decades, the at-grade elevated railways have led to economic deterioration by severing neighbourhoods and causing serious environmental problems such as noise, vibration and an unattractive landscape. The present study focused on laying the empirical groundwork for the SMG to replace at-grade or elevated railways with underground subways. An aggregate-level regression model, in a form similar to a hedonic price model, was developed to identify the net influence of the existence of at-grade or elevated railways on nearby land values. Potential variables that would account for the price of land along urban railways were chosen based on insights and empirical results from previous studies. Statistical tests have verified a significant difference in several variables according to whether a station area belongs to at-grade (or elevated) railways or underground subways. As a result of the regression model, it was confirmed that the land price of areas along at-grade or elevated railways are much less than those along underground railways, all else being equal.