Economic valuation of historic properties: Review and recent developments

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify a list of underlying considerations in choosing the appropriate economic valuation method for use in the conservation of historic property and to highlight the importance of non‐use values in making decisions.

Design/methodology/approach: A thorough literature review is conducted to provide a concise overview of the most commonly used economic valuation methods in the cultural heritage field. The stated and revealed preference methods were analyzed. Their theoretical basis, methodology and analysis procedures are described. By highlighting the strengths and limitations of these evaluation methods for use in the different context, a list of underlying factors for choosing the appropriate method for different decision‐making problems in managing historic properties were deduced.

Findings: The underlying considerations in choosing the appropriate evaluation method in historic properties include “Matching the objectives ”, “Evaluate use or non‐use values ”, “Scope of evaluation ”, “availability of data”, “Time and cost of conducting the methods”, “Methodological procedures”, “Analysis of the methods”, and “Local contexts where the techniques will be applied”.

Originality/value: The long‐term significance of this study is to enhance a holistic understanding of the quantitative approach to evaluate the value of historic properties. This enhanced understanding should help to inform the decision‐makings on comparing and prioritizing the management of heritage facilities when confronted with limited resources. Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited.