A new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line construction and housing wealth: Evidence from the Circle Line

Abstract

This study uses the opening of the new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) in stages between 2010 and 2012 in Singapore as the exogenous event to empirically test the impact of the new Circle Line (CL) on transaction data covering the period from 2009 to 2013, we find that the average housing prices into housing prices, especially households living within a 400-meter radius (the treatment zone) willingness to pay” for houses located within the treatment zone is 13.2% relative to houses located outside the treatment zone. The new CL opening creates an estimated S$1.23 billion housing wealth intensity declines in phases 2 and 3 of the CL opening.