The Impact of Flooding on the Price of Residential Property: A Transactional Analysis of the UK Market

Abstract

The increase in frequency and severity of flood events in the UK has highlighted the question of the impact of flooding on the value of property. Previous studies in the UK and internationally have measured a wide variety of impacts from no impact to discounts of more than 40 per cent of property price. Transactional measurements have not previously been attempted in the UK property market due to lack of available data. In order to improve the available evidence base, a variation of the repeat sales methodology has been used to measure the impact of flooding on the price of transacted residential property for 13 locations in the UK. The results reveal the impact of flood events to be highly variable and temporary and no effect of flood designation. The policy implications of these findings with regard to the perceptions and behaviours of property stakeholders are explored.