Compensation due to land use restrictions: the case of limited use area in the vicinity of Polish airports

Research background: The economic benefits that arise with the development of airport infrastructure are accompanied by negative externalities. Legal, technical and institutional instruments are used to mitigate or limit these effects. It involves state intervention in the use of real estate located in the vicinity of the airport, and the cost of such an intervention. On the other hand, as a result of state interventions, real estate market mechanisms are distorted. The balance on the market, prices and as a result the number of transactions is changing. Purpose of the article: The study evaluates adaptive efficiency, which is known as the ability of the real estate market system to adapt to the purpose of public intervention. The effectiveness of state intervention is measured as the difference between market transaction costs and costs after intervention. The former means the full coverage of all individual claims of property owners at market prices. However, after the intervention, these are costs of compensation and litigation (judicial, expert opinions, provisions for payment of damages), as well as the risk of the airport's insolvency. The state intervention system is also assessed through the prism of the lack of a methodology for assessing damages and subjective claims of property owners. The article focuses on the effects of the negative impact of airport noise resulting in limitations to residential buildings' usability and depreciation of their market value. The study is based on the example of one regional airport. Methods: The study evaluates the current compensation model related to the introduction of Limited Land Use Areas around airports in Poland, based on Poznan-Lawica airport case study. In the empirical part of the paper, we use regression analysis to examine the value of compensations for loss of property value ruled by courts, and duration analysis to explore court procedure duration time. Findings & Value added: This research is one of the important basic research on socio-spatial connection near an airport in Poland. We argue that the current practice related to compensation ruled by courts has substantial flaws (including the methodical error regarding the valuation of claims, where acoustic damage and value loss claims are treated as unrelated, thus both compensations are independently assessed). With the help of the Cox model, we demonstrate that the long distance from the airport and the location within the LUA increase the likelihood of court proceedings ending. The results are important due to the pending disputes and the costs threatening the functioning of airports in Poland.