Subjective valuation of tangible and intangible heritage neighbourhood attributes

Abstract

The valuation of non-tradable goods has seen countless applications in the transport and environmental fields, but it is less common in cultural or urban contexts. The aim of this research is to further understand the attractiveness of heritage neighbourhoods from the residents’ perspective as an input for the renovation of these areas. We took Barrio Yungay, in Santiago de Chile, as a case study. In a first stage, we selected a set of relevant attributes for residents through a Delphi survey and information from two types of qualitative surveys. We were able to identify two types of heritage attributes that are important for residents: (i) tangible attributes, related to the architecture of the buildings, and (ii) intangible attributes, related to the community. A second stage considered the design and implementation of a stated location choice survey considering as attributes the morphology of buildings, the interaction among neighbours and local agents (such as shop owners or school officials) and the dwelling value. The final stage involved the estimation of a hybrid mixed logit choice model allowing for a correct treatment of the pseudo panel nature of the data, individual heterogeneity (taste variations), and the inclusion of a latent construct, sociability. Our results offer guidelines for public policy design in relation to a problem which is gaining importance: the renovation of central areas which have monumental, cultural and social heritage attributes, but yet suffer from obsolescence processes. We believe the results can help to promote the arrival of new inhabitants without destroying the area’s intrinsic values (as many gentrification processes have in the past).