The Impact of Bus Rapid Transit on Housing Price and Accessibility Changes in Sydney: a Repeat Sales Approach

Abstract

New public transport infrastructure is expected to improve the accessibility for local residents, and thus contribute to the land value uplift. The contribution that a bus rapid transit (BRT) system can make to land value uplift is less certain than for rail based systems with the literature mostly containing bus-based examples from developing countries with extensive BRT networks. This paper considers a BRT system named the “Liverpool-Parramatta Transitway” (LPT) was implemented in the South-West of Sydney in 2003 to improve public transport accessibility in the local area. A repeat sales model is constructed to investigate the impact of the LPT on residential housing prices and accessibility changes using repeat sales data from before and after the opening of the LPT. This identified little price difference between properties close to LPT stations and outside of the area that could be considered as affected by the LPT service coverage. This outcome is at variance with the theoretical underpinning of land value uplift and other empirical evidence relating to the LPT. Hedonic models using the same repeat sales data investigate the study area in more detail, stratifying the sample by housing type and by comparing separate before and after models. These research outcomes identify the extent to which the BRT system has an impact on local housing prices through accessibility improvements to the study area and provide a deeper understanding as to how the quantification of land value uplift from BRT represents one element of the wider economic benefits of a BRT system.