Geographical information system techniques in the analysis of the formation of office property values in Barcelona

This paper seeks to bring forward a pilot study to permit the establishment of criteria, guidelines, techniques and procedures, contributing towards building systems of analysis and evaluation of office properties, with the support of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The formation of urban rents (land values) of the city is bound to the competition between certain uses and activities to be located in exceptional positions along main central axes. Since the studies of Hurd (1903), father of the modern urban economy (urban land economics) until the present, urban values present a direct correlation between the concentration of certain uses and activities and their internalisation in the market value. It is necessary to have an overall appreciation of the totality of the determining urban aspects of the main service axes and of their implicit values, as environmental variables of the urban structure which are integrated in the urban values. The study has been of considerable value in the elaboration of the urban cadastral values, differentiated for Barcelonaís office uses. It has incorporated a relevant volume of information on the economic activity, cadastral data base, types of office buildings, market data, the attractiveness of each area, amongst other determining factors in the formation of values. Combining the integrated use of spatial analysis techniques (GIS), with conventional multidimensional statistical analysis techniques used for the massive valuation, a number of prime axes can be determined, in which the urban values indicate an exceptionally high level, well above those for residential uses of Barcelona.