Modern central business districts are characterized by high-rise office buildings, but their presence cannot be explained by standard urban economic models only. We aim to explore the impact of other forces that explain the presence of tall buildings, by examining the existence of a building height premium. We find that Dutch firms are willing to pay on average about 4% more for a building that is 10 m taller, implying a substantial premium associated with tall buildings. This premium is thought to be due to a combination of a within-building agglomeration economies, a landmark and a view effect. Given functional form assumptions on the agglomeration effect, the results suggest that the sum of the landmark and view effect is about 2.8–5.5% of the rent for a building that is five times the average height. Citation Hans Koster, Jos van Ommeren and Piet Rietveld†, “Is the sky the limit? High-rise buildings and office rents”, Journal of Economic Geography (2014) 14 (1): 125-153.
Urban Land Institute PrizeThe Journal of Economic Geography Editors, Oxford University Press, and the Urban Land Institute established the Urban Land Institute Prize. The prize will be awarded annually to the author(s) of the best JOEG paper published online in the previous calendar year. To be eligible for the prize, the paper should be on a topic related to a broadly defined urban agenda including: design and sustainability; the relationship between cities; space and innovation; spatial analysis; urban economics; transport; development; and land or real estate markets.