Critical Determinants of Residential Land Values in a Suburban Area: A Perception Analysis

Residential land is a crucial factor for human beings in any country. Along with the rapid urbanization, the value of residential land is increasing gradually which sometimes the values are unreachable in some places. There is no evidence of research on what factors that are contributing to this escalation of land prices in Moratuwa, one of the suburban areas of the city of Colombo in Sri Lanka. Hence, the main intention of this research is to identify the important determinants of residential land values in the Moratuwa Municipal Council area. Data was collected from two groups, i.e., the residents and professionals who work with land values including three property valuers and a bank manager. An online questionnaire survey was used to collect data from residents selected through the purposive sampling method while semi structured interviews were conducted with professionals. The analysis proceeds with both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The results of the quantitative analysis used for residents’ views show that the factors of location, neighbourhood characteristics, accessibility, and topographic characteristics are significantly influence on land value. The results of the content analysis applied for professionals' views were very close to the results of resident’s views and confirm that the location and neighbourhood characteristics and accessibility are significant on land values. Accordingly, the factors of location, accessibility, and neighbourhood characteristics are having a significant impact in terms of determining the residential land values in the Moratuwa MC Area and interested parties are advised to consider them in all transactions on residential lands