The impact of highway proximity on distribution centers' rents

Access to a highway is an important issue for distribution centres. In the Netherlands, distribution centres are located at only two kilometres from a highway, on average. This paper estimates the impact of highway proximity on distribution centres’ rents by using hedonic pricing techniques. We show that a one kilometre increase to the nearest highway decreases rents of an average sized distribution centre by about 11,000 euro per year. The distance to the geographic centre of the whole country is also shown to affect rents. For other types of industrial real estate, similar results are found. Based on our results, policymakers responsible for spatial planning or economic development may be able to make better decisions when developing new distribution centres.