Greening Schoolyards and Urban Property Values: A Systematic Review of Geospatial and Statistical Evidence

TL;DR

This systematic review consolidates geospatial and statistical evidence showing that greening schoolyards positively influence urban property values, highlighting complex spatial, economic, and social effects often overlooked in broader green space studies.

Contribution

It is the first comprehensive review focusing specifically on schoolyard greening and its impact on property prices using geospatial and statistical data.

Findings

Greening schoolyards generally increase nearby property values.

The effects vary across different cities and contexts.

Complex spatial and social factors influence property value changes.

Abstract

1.1 Background Parks and the greening of schoolyards are examples of urban green spaces that have been praised for their environmental, social, and economic benefits in cities all over the world. More studies show that living near green spaces is good for property values. However, there is still disagreement about how strong and consistent these effects are in different cities (Browning et al., 2023; Grunewald et al., 2024; Teo et al., 2023). 1.2 Purpose This systematic review is the first to bring together a lot of geographical and statistical information that links greening schoolyards to higher property prices, as opposed to just green space in general. By focusing on schoolyard-specific interventions, we find complex spatial, economic, and social effects that are often missed in larger studies of green space. 1.3 Methods This review followed the PRISMA guidelines and did a systematic search and review of papers that were published in well-known journals for urban studies, the environment, and real estate. The criteria for inclusion stressed the use of hedonic pricing or spatial econometric models to look at the relationship between urban green space and home values in a quantitative way. Fifteen studies from North America, Europe, and Asia met the requirements for inclusion (Anthamatten et al., 2022; Wen et al., 2019; Li et al., 2019; Mansur & Yusuf, 2022).