Land Value, and Urban Transport and Amenities: Evidence From Antananarivo, Madagascar

Abstract

Although urbanization is an engine of growth, many African cities are overly crowded with massive traffic congestion and high housing prices, pushing the poor away to unfavorable settlements or remote suburban areas and making them commute long. The paper sheds light on the relationship between land value and urban attributes in a rapidly growing African city, Antananarivo, Madagascar. It shows that the land value gradient is steep with an elasticity of −0.78 with respect to trip time to the city center. Thus, housing prices are overshooting. Better urban planning is needed through improving transport accessibility by minibus. Other urban infrastructure services, such as piped water and garbage collection, and urban amenities are also important to add to land values. Spatial heterogeneity is found across different locations in the city. While some areas require clean water and climate resilience, others need more city amenities, such as parks.