Specification and estimation of models of the formation of urban land costs in Gran Concepción, Chile

Abstract

This paper represents a summary of a doctoral thesis directed towards explaining the variations in urban land costs for the conurbation of Gran Concepción, Chile, over time, considering quarterly periods for the decade 1992-2002, as well as in space, for the different geographical zones that comprise this conurbation.

This conurbation, which contains Concepción, the capital city of the region, is the directional centre of the Region of Bío Bío, and provides all kinds of services - housing, finance, public administration, education, industrial, port related and others - to the wider region. All of this is evidenced in an exceedingly dynamic urban land market, which functions in a context of free exchange and ruled by communal and inter-communal development regulations.

The research managed to relate the variations in urban land costs of the conurbation with variables related to the evolution of the national and regional macro-economy and with location variables at the level of zones.