Investigating the Impact of Airport Noise and Land Use Restrictions on House Prices: Evidence from Selected Regional Airports in Poland

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the influence of airport operation on property prices. In this research, we apply spatial hedonic regression and a difference-in-differences approach to address the introduction of new land use restrictions on property prices. We use data on housing transactions from two housing submarkets around regional airports in Poland. The results suggest that the introduction of land use restrictions impacts property prices. In general, as expected, more rigid restrictions translate into higher discounts in property prices. This research contributes to the limited knowledge on the impact of the introduction of land use restrictions on property prices, as most previous papers have focused solely on the impact of noise. These findings must be treated with caution, as some estimates were not statistically significant, mainly due to limited sample size. The research has important policy implications. Growing airports in Poland face tensions between economic and environmental sustainability. Currently, airports in Poland are obliged to limit their environmental impact by creating limited use areas related to the aircraft related noise while being responsible for property value loss related to these restrictions. As a consequence, most regional airports face significant compensations to property owners.