Greening Schoolyards and Urban Property Values: A Systematic Review of Geospatial and Statistical Evidence

Greening Schoolyards and Urban Property Values: A Systematic Review of Geospatial and Statistical Evidence | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Systematic Review Greening Schoolyards and Urban Property Values: A Systematic Review of Geospatial and Statistical Evidence Mahshid This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7221188/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract 1.1 Background Parks and the greening of schoolyards are examples of urban green spaces that have been praised for their environmental, social, and economic benefits in cities all over the world. More studies show that living near green spaces is good for property values. However, there is still disagreement about how strong and consistent these effects are in different cities (Browning et al., 2023; Grunewald et al., 2024; Teo et al., 2023). 1.2 Purpose This systematic review is the first to bring together a lot of geographical and statistical information that links greening schoolyards to higher property prices, as opposed to just green space in general. By focusing on schoolyard-specific interventions, we find complex spatial, economic, and social effects that are often missed in larger studies of green space. 1.3 Methods This review followed the PRISMA guidelines and did a systematic search and review of papers that were published in well-known journals for urban studies, the environment, and real estate. The criteria for inclusion stressed the use of hedonic pricing or spatial econometric models to look at the relationship between urban green space and home values in a quantitative way. Fifteen studies from North America, Europe, and Asia met the requirements for inclusion (Anthamatten et al., 2022; Wen et al., 2019; Li et al., 2019; Mansur & Yusuf, 2022). 1.4 Results Numerous studies have demonstrated that the value of adjacent properties is enhanced by urban green space in a statistically significant manner. The magnitude of the benefit is contingent upon the socio-economic context, the form of green space, and the size of the city (Gao & Asami, 2021; Sajjad et al., 2021; Zhou & Wang, 2021). The emphasis was on spatial heterogeneity and temporal trends, which implies that the distribution of benefits may not be equitable across localities (Kabisch & Haase, 2021; Deng et al., 2022). Various methodologies, including spatial latency models, hedonic pricing, and GIS-based analysis, resulted in disparate results (Norzailawati et al., 2018; Xu et al., 2022). 1.5 Conclusions Some studies show that urban green spaces can raise the value of homes, but how much and how fairly these benefits happen depends on the local situation, the layout of the city, and the city's policies. The review stresses how important it is to have standard measures and long-term studies to help make urban greening projects fair. This research adds to the theory of urban planning by looking at the hedonic value of green infrastructure on a small scale and critically examining the consequences of schoolyard greening on different groups of people. This gives us a new way to think about fair urban expansion. Urban Studies Schoolyard greening urban green spaces property values GIS hedonic pricing urban planning spatial analysis Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7221188","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Systematic Review","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":491245219,"identity":"74f9e277-2d40-4081-bc78-db72c8e45a58","order_by":0,"name":"Mahshid","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9135-0687","institution":"University of Colorado Denver","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"","middleName":"","lastName":"Mahshid","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-26 12:29:38","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":true,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":true,"humanSubjectConsent":true,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7221188/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7221188/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":87861675,"identity":"2c7bf4af-7e7a-4e7f-8fe7-ba1d35e4a6c6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-29 18:31:31","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":520865,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"A4GreeningSchoolyardsandUrbanPropertyValues.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7221188/v1_covered_3f1ea4e9-7480-4eaa-b5b4-d3ad9c55ca3a.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGreening Schoolyards and Urban Property Values: A Systematic Review of Geospatial and Statistical Evidence\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"University of Colorado Denver","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Schoolyard greening, urban green spaces, property values, GIS, hedonic pricing, urban planning, spatial analysis","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7221188/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7221188/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e1.1 Background\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParks and the greening of schoolyards are examples of urban green spaces that have been praised for their environmental, social, and economic benefits in cities all over the world. More studies show that living near green spaces is good for property values. However, there is still disagreement about how strong and consistent these effects are in different cities (Browning et al., 2023; Grunewald et al., 2024; Teo et al., 2023).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.2 Purpose\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis systematic review is the first to bring together a lot of geographical and statistical information that links greening schoolyards to higher property prices, as opposed to just green space in general. By focusing on schoolyard-specific interventions, we find complex spatial, economic, and social effects that are often missed in larger studies of green space.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.3 Methods\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis review followed the PRISMA guidelines and did a systematic search and review of papers that were published in well-known journals for urban studies, the environment, and real estate. 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The emphasis was on spatial heterogeneity and temporal trends, which implies that the distribution of benefits may not be equitable across localities (Kabisch \u0026amp; Haase, 2021; Deng et al., 2022). Various methodologies, including spatial latency models, hedonic pricing, and GIS-based analysis, resulted in disparate results (Norzailawati et al., 2018; Xu et al., 2022).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.5 Conclusions\u003cbr\u003e\nSome studies show that urban green spaces can raise the value of homes, but how much and how fairly these benefits happen depends on the local situation, the layout of the city, and the city's policies. The review stresses how important it is to have standard measures and long-term studies to help make urban greening projects fair. This research adds to the theory of urban planning by looking at the hedonic value of green infrastructure on a small scale and critically examining the consequences of schoolyard greening on different groups of people. 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