Putting a price tag on good design – how to prove better streets lead to higher prices

One of the most frustrating aspects of the job for anyone involved in urban and landscape design is that their contribution to a project can often be the first to be cut back when budgets are drawn up. Putting a value on good design was a topic that featured highly in the recent RUDI Quality Streetscapes conference, held in May in London.

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CABE researcher Tom Bolton spoke about a series of research projects he is involved in, examining ways of mapping the value of good design. One important aim is to find a way of demonstrating to local authorities and others that good design can bring benefit measurable in financial terms.

Good urban design adds vlaue: 4.9 percent (£25 per square metre) on retail rents

In 2004, CABE published ‘Getting value for money from construction projects through design: how auditors can help’.

The 2005 CABE report, Does Money Grow on Trees, looked at how well planned and managed parks, gardens and squares can have a positive impact on the value of nearby properties and attract inward investment. Property prices were found to go up by between 5% and 7% if they were adjacent to a park, a phenomenon termed ‘value uplift’.

The methods used in this report were then used in another CABE study, in which Colin Buchanan was commissioned to look at 10 case study High Streets in London, ranging from Hampstead to the Walworth Road, in which local people were asked questions about what they liked or disliked about the street.

The research used the concept of PERS, or pedestrian environment review system, developed by the Transport Research Laboratory. Tom Bolton said that PERS took into account factors such as security, maintenance and access when pedestrians in the London boroughs were asked what they though of their local high street.

Good residential and urban deisgn adds the equivalent to a 5.2 percent (£13,600) to residential prices

He found that it enabled a monetary value to be established. One point on the PERS scale (see below) was found to be equivalent to a 5.2 percent (£13,600) increase in residential prices, or 4.9 percent (£25 per square metre) on retail rents.

‘This is a pretty significant finding, and the first time a conversion has been made in this way between market value and design quality,’ he told delegates.

‘A one point rise in PERS is quite achievable. Increase the quality of a street and you will get direct benefits. Better streets lead directly to higher prices,’ he concluded, adding that higher property prices were not necessarily a good thing in themselves. PERS was a useful tool which can be used to quantify the benefits of improvements to streets.

Making the case for investment – how PERS works

David Ubaka, Design Champion for Transport for London, said that the PERS system would be an extremely useful tool to any designer seeking to make the case for investment in the public realm. He told delegates at the conference that a new Public Realm Strategy for London will be out in draft form in August, for publication in February 2008. It will sit alongside the London Plan, and ‘will have teeth’ he promised.

He said using the PERS system has enabled him to establish the first ‘monotised’ methodology for valuing public realm improvements. As an example, it was used to create a monotised public realm strategy for the new East London line development at Dalston Junction, enabling a value to be put on good design.

The system is now on trial in six TfL projects. ‘The next stage is to work with all the groups involved to move forward and take into account all the other benefits, rental values and so on,” he concluded.


PERS or ‘Pedestrian Environment Review System’ is a walking audit Tool, developed by TRL (the Transport Research Laboratory). Version 2.0 of the software has had input from TfL to ensure that London specific requirements are catered for. It is used to assess the level of service and quality provided for pedestrians across a range of pedestrian environments.

It consists of two parts:

1. Checksheet(s) with accompanying guidance for use in the field to score environments and note comments and
2. Software that is used to store results and produce presentational output

PERS is used to review the following types of pedestrian environment:

1. Links – any footway, footpath or highway. They can be divided into sections if very long, into sides or reviewed in total

2. Crossings – any designated or undesignated crossing where a pedestrian route intersects with a highway. You may choose to include side road junction crossings or not, dependent on the audit taking place.

3. Routes – a way that links a trip origin and a trip destination, such as home to work. Routes are made up of any number of links and crossings

4. Public Transport Waiting Areas – any designated area where people are required to wait in order to use public transport, such as bus and train stops. Larger PTWA’s may be considered as interchange spaces

5. Interchange Spaces – the areas around and between public transport stops or termini. They allow travellers to change between transport modes. PERS should only be used to assess the external public interchange space (under local authority control), not the interior.
6. Public Spaces – these vary in size from small plazas to parks. These are not specifically for pedestrians, but are used as part of a pedestrians’ route

Because much of the reviewing is qualitative, it is essential that the guidance summary sheets are reviewed before conducting an audit.

The PERS scoring system ranges from -3 to +3, where 0 is an average score as below:

Poor Average Good
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-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3


The Review Process

The key stages and process for conducting a pedestrian audit are detailed below:

• The PERS software is weighted so that particular factors account for a larger proportion of the overall grading than others.

• PERS factors in the relative importance of some factors compared to others (e.g. strategic routes are considered most important and so must score more highly to be rated the same as local routes).

• Although quantitative methods are used when reviewing pedestrian environments, within PERS much of the auditing is also qualitative, using the judgement of the auditor. This allows the ‘feel’ of an environment to be gauged and assessed.

Stage 1 – Definition of the study area

The study area should be defined on a base map, with all the pedestrian environments – links, crossings, public spaces to be reviewed all displayed. All auditors should have a copy of the base map.

Stage 2 – Identification of review stages

The complete list of pedestrian environments should be broken down and divided up amongst auditors. The guidance for auditing these environments should be reviewed.

Stage 3 – On-street evaluation

The auditors review their assigned environment using the summary sheets and scoring guides. Scores and comments are noted down for later input into the PERS software.

Stage 4 – Data input and analysis

The scores and comments gathered are entered into PERS software for each environment reviewed. The software assigns each environment and sub-sections an overall score.

Stage 5 – Display and review of outputs

The PERS software can be used to generate reports and charts to display all aspects of the auditing data gathered.

More information

The TRL developed the concept of PERS in conjunction with the London Borough of Bromley which wanted to find out what pedestrians thought of their local centre.

TRL also offer training courses in PERS.

RUDI co-organised this event for the first time, and we hope that the discussion will help to progress the debate about the state of the public realm in the UK. The conference aimed to identify the different types of value created by well-designed and managed public places and assist in the dissemination of knowledge to help make the case for investing in improvements.

The conference was supported by: The Academy of Urbanism - Association of Town Centre Management (ATCM) - Living Streets - UrbanDesignJobs.com - Public Realm Information & Advisory Network (PRIAN)

The conference was sponsored by: Project Centre