EXPLORING THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE SEASIDE URBAN REGENERATION ON SURROUNDING COMMERCIAL VALUES IN THESSALONIKI, GREECE

Urban regeneration projects, which aim at land redevelopment and land use changes, place a huge impact on the quality of urban environment. Apart from their environmental and aesthetic impact, their positive effects have an economic scale as well. The economic activity of an urban area can be affected by such projects through the increase in the frequency of visits, the consumption due to this increase and the change in real estate values. In particular, commercial values can be affected at a great extent, as the increase in the popularity of an area leads to an increase in revenues and, therefore, increases the demand for commercial properties. This paper examines the economic impact of the seaside urban regeneration, known as NeaParalia, on surrounding commercial values in Thessaloniki, Greece, with the use of hedonic modelling and geographically weighted regression. Findings indicate that, in general, the impact of the seaside regeneration is positive on the demand for commercial uses and on commercial values especially of properties with high proximity to it. However, the impact of variables as criminality and apprehension of the true benefits of regenerated urban areas continue to play an important role. It is worth mentioning that the impact of the regeneration is both reflected on the change in commercial values and the willingness to pay by professionals for the maintenance of the area.