The aim of this paper is to compare various real estate valuation models and the manner in which they take into account environmental variables. The reference model is taken to be a standard linear regression model including ordinal variables to measure environmental quality. This type of model is widely used. It is first compared to linear models which incorporate environmental quality notes extracted from the urban habitat database of a Geographic Information System (GIS) which has been developed recently for Geneva, Switzerland. We also incorporate these quality notes in a single input parameter, a so-called geo-index. The price indices constructed in this way are quite similar to the more traditional hedonic model.We additionally find that Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models, which are non-linear per se, exhibit a similar general form of the price indices, but that the detailed price behaviours of different models feature notable differences depending on the input choice of environmental variables.-2 -

Sum m ary. The aim of this paper is to gain a better understan ding of the character istics related to the environ m ent of single-fam ily houses in the greater Geneva area. An Analytical Hierarch y Process (AH P) m ethodology is applied to the data collecte d by m ean s of a question naire which w as sent to 850 owners of houses in G eneva. The pairw ise com parisons are done with eight criteria . For the 28 com parison s, the stan dard levels of preferen ces are used, but with a m ultiplicative scale rath er than the stan dard linear scale. The resu lts show that distan ce to a green area and quietn ess of the area are the two m ost importan t factors. Another ® nding is that the proxim ity of shopping centres and schools is not as im portan t as in other cou ntries.Andre ÂBender is at HEC, Universite Âde Gene Á ve, 102 boulevard Carl-Vog t,

The aim of the paper is to investigate locational attributes of commercial real estate which are defined in terms of a collection of qualitative appreciations by office users in the Geneva region in Switzerland. The empirical analysis of these environmental quality appreciations was carried out using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology with data from a questionnaire which was sent to 1,800 users of commercial real estate. The users belong to seven professional categories, thus making it possible to examine inter-professional differences between the appreciations. Seven criteria, all quantifiable in the framework of a geographic information system, are used to evaluate the quality of the urban environment through a process of pairwise comparisons. Some general preferences concerning four pre-defined geographic areas are also examined in the perspective of a possible further analysis based on geographic information systems. Although the value spread of the quality perceptions appears to be rather wide, it is still possible to identify with confidence a few dominant criteria for the choice of particular office locations.

A comparative study of perceptions concerning the environmental quality of residential real estate in Switzerland based on empirical data collected in three different linguistic regions is presented. Responses by homeowners in the Geneva, Zurich and Lugano areas to questionnaires involving pairwise preference criteria are analysed in the framework of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Eight different environmental quality criteria are used and responses are categorised in terms of indicators concerning the personal situation of the homeowner. The results show that environmental preference levels across the three cities are in the 7-18 per cent range. It appears that perceptions are similar for four of the eight criteria, whereas notable differences exist for the other criteria. Some possible interpretations of these results are given. Finally, possible extensions to this study are discussed, in particular how the approach could be integrated in a more detailed spatial analysis of socio-economic data in the framework of geographic information systems.The research register for this journal is available atWe thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for its financial support (12-45544.95) and an anonymous referee for helpful comments.

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