The Effect of Spatial Configuration and Land Use Pattern on Land Price Formation

Land use in a city has a unique structure, mostly due to the interactions between its spatial configuration and functions, developing into a patchwork of functional regions of various forms. Land price can be seen as one of the indices reflecting these advancements in spatial structure and land use. Through an analysis of the influences of spatial configuration and land use on the formation of land price, this paper seeks to investigate the correlation among spatial configuration, land price and land use on a robust basis. Seochodong area in Seoul, South Korea, has been selected for our case study. Seochodong area demonstrates various forms of land uses against the background of dominant residential areas. This study will first derive space configurational characteristic factors by means of Space Syntax, a tool to analyze spatial configuration objectively, and then identify land use characteristic variables based on the systematic classification of land characteristic investigation list. By combining two characteristic factors, the correlation between land price and those factors can be determined. As a result, it is found that space configurational characteristic factors have greater influence on the formation of land price than land use characteristic variables. We suggest that the credibility of the previous land-price formation models can be improved significantly by introducing space configurational characteristic factors as well as land characteristic factors. By investigating the correlation among land use, spatial configuration and land price, this study may be used as a reference guide for evaluating proper economic potentials in particular landscapes and also for proposing alternative plans.