Residential property value impacts of proximity to transport infrastructure: An investigation of bus rapid transit and heavy rail networks in Brisbane, Australia

Public transport investment is normally targeted at increasing accessibility which land rent theory identifies and will in turn increase land values. There is a clear policy interest in how much land values increase following a new transport investment so as to establish if there is sufficient land value uplift to capture and to help pay or contribute to investment plans. Identifying an uplift for residential land has been well studied in the context of new light rail systems and bus rapid transit (BRT) systems in developing countries but there is little evidence for BRT in developed countries. This paper has two objectives. First, to examine long term impact of BRT in a developed world context in Brisbane, Australia. Brisbane's BRT uses an open system design which contrasts with the closed system design of the successful BRT systems in South America and elsewhere, including the BRT in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Second, BRT in Brisbane was introduced to a network already dominated by a radial heavy rail network and this investigation recognises that the uplift from BRT introduction may therefore be different to a BRT in a single mode city. A third motivation is to consider the spatial distribution of uplift which is an essential pre-requisite to understanding the distributional impact if uplift is used to contribute to infrastructure provision. Spatial modelling is used to examine the accessibility impacts of the BRT at a global level. This is followed by Geographical Weighted Regression, used to examine the spatial distribution of accessibility using a local model. The results show that there is greater uplift in Brisbane, as compared to that identified by studies of Sydney's BRT which is likely due to the greater network coverage of BRT in Brisbane and less strong competition of rail. Land value uplift is also spatially distributed over the network giving higher uplift in some areas than others and lower values than typically found with rail based systems in developed countries. However, the degree of uplift is relatively low, with proximity to BRT stations attracting more uplift than proximity to train stations.