Impact of urban spatial structures on housing prices: a comparative study of twelve Czech cities

Abstract

This study aims to assess how different urban spatial structures influence housing prices in large Czech cities. The analysis is based on 2019 residential transaction data obtained from mortgage banks and the Czech Cadastral Office. It examines four structure types: medieval city cores, nineteenth- and twentieth-century city centres, socialist-functionalist housing estates, and contemporary developer-built residential projects. To ensure comparability, unit prices were adjusted for building structural design, apartment size, and technical or construction condition using empirically derived coefficients. This approach reduces distortions arising from the heterogeneity of the housing stock across historical periods. The results show that the highest unit prices most frequently occur in medieval cores and contemporary residential developments, while lower prices are found in historic city centres or socialist housing estates, depending on local conditions. The study confirms a relationship between urban structure and housing prices, but also reveals substantial inter-city variability, highlighting the originality of focusing on urban structure typology as a pricing factor in Central European cities.