Abstract
High-density buildings can benefit city sustainability by reducing expansion into biodiverse and often public natural ecosystems, reducing travel-time to work-and-play and improving energy efficiency. However, city densification can also remove vegetation which provides ecosystem services that enhance resident's wellbeing. Some architects design shared landscapes on and around large-scale buildings which are excludable to the public, like private gardens, but can be rivalrous between residents, like parks. This potentially mitigates public vegetation and subsequent ecosystem service loss. However, little evidence exists on whether condominium unit buyers pay more for shared landscapes. To address this knowledge gap, we used the hedonic pricing method to explain condominium unit resale value with unbuilt and vegetated space, accounting for other price determinants, spatial and temporal random effects using a robust regression. Leaf area above 184 m(2) and unbuilt area (condominium estate area minus the building footprint) above 62.3 m(2) per person had significant positive effects on condominium unit selling price. This provides evidence that economic returns can be gained by having vegetation in accessible landscapes on and around buildings, should they be provided above a certain quantity. When supplied at more abundant quantities condominium estate vegetation also had a bigger effect than nearby managed parks, suggesting condominium unit buyers see more economic value in having nearer snore private vegetation. Planners and building developers should consider these effects when deciding whether to encourage vegetated landscapes at condominium estates, alongside how vegetation can provide other monetary and nonmonetary ecosystem services.