Sharp shaped vegetation lifts property prices (new study)

Residential property owners who want increase the sale price of their property can try a new way of adding value – plant some palm trees out front. See: ‘Money in your palm: Sharp shaped vegetation in the surroundings increase the subjective value of houses.’ Journal of Environmental Psychology, Volume 46, June 2016, Pages 176–187

“We demonstrated that houses surrounded by sharp leaf vegetation (SLV) were evaluated as more expensive than houses surrounded by round leaf vegetation (RLV)”

Thus, the house shown above right was rated (by non-expert experimental raters recruited through Amazon MTurk) as being worth less than the same house when shown surrounded by palm-like vegetation.  But, you may ask, “Why?” In which case, the authors have an explanation for you :

“The perceived higher values and safety of houses surrounded by palms is attributed to the association of palms with suitable and stable living environments. Furthermore, preference for palm habitats may have deep roots of human evolution in African savannas.”

Coming Soon : The ups and downs of waterside properties