Impact of Zoning and Archaeological Legislation on Land Values in Kandy Municipal Council Area: A Hedonic-type Analysis

Land values are important considerations for land use and development planning. Using data on land values recorded at the Government Valuation Department (Central regional office), this study investigated factors affecting land values of Kandy municipal area for the period 1980 to 2015, with a particular focus on testing the impact of zoning and archaeological regulations on land value. To derive inferences, we estimated hedonic-type models, which is a standard technique for analysis of land and property values, on a sample of 169 randomly selected land parcels in Kandy municipal area. Among the key findings, we observed that the impact of urban development zoning law on the value per perch was LKR 1,085,075 while the impact of archeo02logical regulation on the value was LKR 322,420 per perch within the municipal limits. Both zoning regulations and carpet road access created robustly positive impacts on land values, across several specifications including a model that included land values adjusted for inflation.