Building Abusivism and Condono

This article is written from the viewpoint of an economic adviser counseling the cities of the Cagliari, Italy metropolitan area on the performance of the condono (literally, pardon or condonation) policy. The goal of this policy is the prevention of future abusivism, or widespread building code violations consisting mainly of the construction of residential volumes either without building permits or in contradiction to the issued building permit. It also provides the cities with the financial support necessary for the elimination of the underendowment of services and infrastructure caused by abusivism. This empirical work, based on a two-stage hedonic approach, defines and implements a research methodology and design to evaluate the monetary value of the excessive burden on existing public utilities generated by urban residential expansion. This research methodology and design offers powerful tools to define city fiscal policies that could successfully deal with value generated by urban residential expansion.