Influence of physical attributes on the price of land: the case of the Province of Talca, Chile

this study aims at estimating the percent impact on the price of farmland of the following physical attributes: size, soil quality, water rights, connectivity and location. to this effect, all the farm sales occurred in the province of talca between 2003 and 2006 were examined, directly from the corresponding title deeds, at the conservador de bienes raíces (property register) of talca, obtaining thus a total of 92 observations. subsequently, a linear function was estimated, with price per hectare as the dependent variable and the physical attributes listed above, as explanatory variables. analysis showed that the most influential variable is location (le. county) and in a very minor degree, connectivity (le. distance to the nearest paved road), water rights, soil quality and size. talca is the preferred county, as location in other counties has negative impacts on price. size and connectivity have negative impacts, while water rights and soil quality have positive impacts on price.