The Actual and Perceived Effects of Floodplain Land‐use Regulations on Residential Property Values in London, Ontario

The impacts associated with floodplain management adjustments should be understood. This paper addresses this need by describing the perceived and actual impacts floodplain regulations have had on residential land values in a portion of London, Ontario. The institutional arrangements for floodplain regulation and the actual practice of regulation in the City of London for the period 1978–1989 are described. Actual impacts on land values were determined through use of a geographical matching technique based on data obtained from mls sources and permit data available at the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority office. Perceptual data were acquired from a questionnaire survey of floodplain landowners. Findings indicate that most residents perceived that no impact on land values was associated with floodplain regulations. This view was supported by the analysis of actual home transactions