The Effect of Infrastructural Works on Urban Property Values: The asse attrezzato in Pescara, Italy

The objective pursued in this text is that of verifying the effects on real estate values exercised by the asse attrezzato, the high-speed road artery connecting the city of Pescara with the A14 highway and its inland areas. More in detail, the investigation considered the final section of this infrastructure, which penetrates the consolidated urban fabric of the city by approximately two kilometres as an overpass running parallel to the Pescara River and the quays of the canal port, all the way to the coastline. The urban landscape is strongly characterised by the imposing and markedly functional presence of the viaduct, linked to its use as the privileged means of accessing the city, to which it is interconnected via three interchange ramps. The evaluation employed a technique of inferential statistics, a multiple linear regression analysis, with one of the independent variables represented by the distance of buildings from the interchanges of the asse attrezzato. Furthermore, the research experimented with the use of a complex variable: an expression of the grouping of various characteristics associated with the different urban contexts in which the buildings are located. The empirical results reveal the presence of a notable effect on real estate values related to accessibility, and suggest the practicability of using complex variables in regression models in relation to characteristics expressing urban quality. Keywords residential real estate market – hedonic pricing – accessibility – urban quality