Flood risk and its effect on property value: a case of Kuala Krai, Kelantan

The study of flood impact on property value is vital because property is the most valuable asset and commodity coveted by people for ownership. The price paid indirectly reflects residents’ willingness to pay to own the asset or to live in a place. Additionally, the attraction to live in a particular settlement area causes people to give less priority to environmental threat such as flood phenomena. In this context, this study aims to investigate whether the value of the property was affected by flood risk by taking Kuala Krai, Kelantan, as a case study. By combining spatial analysis, Geographic Information System mapping, and statistical analysis, this study included flood risk as one of the tested variables to determine whether it has affected property value. The statistical methods used were the Ordinary Least Squares regression model (OLS) and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR). Market prices of a total of 811 transacted properties in the district of Kuala Krai have been used to generate property maps. In addition, ArcGIS software was used to display and store modeled flood in the study area. The findings showed that higher property values were found around urban centers such as Kuala Krai, Dabong, and Manik Urai, although these areas were among the areas with deep flood. The study disclosed that despite being in areas exposed to flood, the value of property was unaffected. On the other hand, the strategic location in the population concentration area has made it a more important factor than flood danger/risk in determining the impact on property value. Furthermore, people’s receptiveness, adaptability, and risk-taking attitudes were likely to have caused flood to have failed to dislodge the population from flood-prone areas. Another possibility was that flood-prone areas were important economic activity zones so much so that people were more interested to live and work there rather than responding to flood risk. This study has contributed to the knowledge of how human reacted to natural risk phenomena. It has also contributed to the knowledge in the use of techniques in geoscience to study flood phenomenon. This study has outlined some suggestions for future studies. People’s responses to flood disaster and their effects on property value, factors influencing people’s choice, improvement of damage assessment methodology, modelled flood simulation, and statistical model improvement were recommended to be further researched to improve the results.