The Impact of Spatial Proximity of Stores on Residential Real Estate Prices in St. Petersburg

As the topic of housing price formation is quite popular among the researchers in different studies, more and more questions on this process are arose. Many different features affect the property price and it is important for real estate market players to know properly how this price is formed. This paper is dedicated to the examination of the stores proximity effect on the residential real estate prices of the property market in St. Petersburg. The data used includes prices on 1-room apartment offers and stores of different types. The main characteristic that is analyzed in this paper is the distance between different apartments sales offer and the nearest store of different type: hypermarket, supermarket, discounter and liquor store. Results that were provided by the regression analysis show that the distance to the liquor store and to the supermarket negatively affect the price of the residential housing. The distance to the nearest discounter has no influence on the price of the property, while distance to the hypermarket positively have a positive impact in the flat prices. Also, internal characteristics of the flat were studied in the paper as control variables. The results illustrate that the price of the apartment is influenced by the size of the apartment, its proximity to the nearest subway station, number of floors in the building and the material of the house construction.