Urban and municipal economics

Land is restricted goods and represents a base for developing and carrying out any business activity. Unlike goods, land is immovable and its ownership creates special relations in economy. Spatial planning is a matter of public interest owing to its long-term impact on inhabitants and is therefore entrusted to the state and local communities, which are more and more mindful of costs and incomes from investments in land, as well as costs and incomes from the management of buildings, public areas and public infrastructure. Circumstances in spatial planning have worsened recently, together with financial and economic conditions. Local communities are facing problems of agricultural land protection, amortised and oversized building stocks and public infrastructure, and the lack of funds for renovation and construction of new public infrastructure. It is increasingly evident that local communities do not use financial resources for the renovation of municipal infrastructure. On the other hand, investors are interested in building on new sites, which seemingly decrease the costs of the acquisition of land and public utility equipment.

Effective spatial planning therefore requires the knowledge of urban and municipal economics. This, together with the knowledge of law, public administration, the financial system on the local level, geodesy, spatial data, and project management, upgrades the classic perception of spatial planning. Owing to their universality urban and municipal economics can be the key linking element between public-economy and private-economy aspects of spatial planning.

OUR WAY OF WORK

IGEA has participated in all large projects of the informatisation of spatial records and the setup of spatial information systems on the national and local levels, and thus gained valuable experience in the use of data for various purposes. The most important data for urban and municipal economics are the data of the Land and Building Cadastres, the Real Estate Register, the Cadastre of Public Infrastructure and the Register of real-estate transactions. These registers can be linked up to other data (for example, topographic data, data of administrative procedures or activities affecting physical environment, etc.) and statistical records. This kind of data interoperability facilitates solving of complex spatial-economic problems; therefore the knowledge of manifold and interdisciplinary aspects of the topic is necessary for the success.

OUR SERVICES

IGEA has developed into a company which links the spatial and economic components of data and thus provides the consulting and operational support in urban and municipal economics. Clients are offered the following major services:

• link-up of land, building, infrastructure and public area records with business records,
• preparation of records and data for the real-estate valuation (individual and mass valuation and attribution of values),
• real-estate appraisals and preparation of balance sheets,
• consulting and operational support in pricing of municipal utility services and products,
• consulting and operational support in pricing of the lease and use of real estate owned by the local community,
• consulting in the preparation of ordinances and other documents for levying the municipal utility tax and other charges concerning real estate,
• drafting of programme for the supply of utility services which determines the basis for levying the public utility charges,
• consulting in concluding contracts on the supply of utility services to building land,
• searching for the most adequate locations of the foreseen business activities,
• cost and benefit analysis of activities affecting the physical environment,
• analysis of the best utilisation of land,
• preparing the projects of public-private partnership,
• etc.