A. Abdu Raheem

The Intensity of Urban Residential Land Use and Land Values: an Econometric Analysis of Trends and Spatial Variation A. Abdu Raheem

The importance of land in urban activities it is therefore necessary to gain a better understanding on the operation of the urban land market. Land prices are key in examining this behavior. Housing, unlike most traded goods, exhibits certain uncommon features making its study distinctive and complex. These features include durability and heterogeneity. The intensity of residences denotes of concentration of people, houses and households. It is a measure of congestion prevailing in the city. High and low intensity of residences indicates the relative quality of residential localities. It is relevant to emphasize here that the image of a locality generated at first sight is largely a function of residential intensity. Progressive congestion forces the residents of the city to face many problems of accommodation and also of lack of amenities. At some point of time, due to over-congestion, people try to move out to some new areas lying vacant at the fringe of the city. As a consequence, a large number of regularized localities and temporary huts come up. Nevertheless, in most Indian cities people try to live as close to the city center as possible.