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Contributor/author(s): Kyle D.J.

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Land value is a parameter that is calculated for every tile on the map.  It can range from 0 to 255 for each tile.  Land value determines tax revenues and which buildings will appear (and the latter in turn influences population, crime levels, water requirements..., just about everything).

The land values for all tiles on the map are updated once every 60 days.

Terrain Effects

Tiles near water receive a land value bonus. The increase is 50% for tiles immediately next to the water, and diminishes linearly for tiles farther away. Beyond 6 tiles away, the water has no effect on land value.

High elevations can also increase land values:

+ 0%  If the tile's elevation is lower than the average elevation on the map.
+30%  If the tile's elevation is at least 8 times higher than the average.
(The effect varies linearly between these two extremes.)

For example, suppose the average terrain elevation in your city is 130 m (unfortunately there is no good way to measure this in the game).  And suppose you want to zone some land on a plateau at 260 m, which is twice as high as the average elevation.  The land values on the plateau will receive a bonus of:  (2 / 8) x 30%  = 7.5%.

City-Centre Effect

The base land value of a tile receives a bonus which depends on the distance the tile is from the map centre. The closer the tile is to the centre, the greater the bonus. This land value bonus also depends on the population of the city, with larger populations having greater bonuses (however the bonus becomes constant above 2.5 million Sims). And finally, the land value bonus is different for residential, commercial, and industrial properties.

The land value bonus is highest at the map centre, decreases linearly as you move away from the map centre, and at some distance away from the map centre becomes constant. Figure 1 shows this for a city of 2.5 million Sims:

(The "Distance from City Centre" in Figure 1 is 0% at the map centre, and 100% at the edge of the map.)  You can see that the city-centre effect for residential zones is present inside of the 80% mark and for commercial zones inside of the 60% mark. However industrial zones experience the city-centre effect across the entire map.

When the population is 0, the city-centre effect is flat across the entire map, as indicated by the dotted lines in Figure 1. As population increases, the peak value at the map centre (the red dots in Figure 1) begin to rise.  This continues until 2.5 million population after which there is no further increase (as shown in Figure 1).  The increase of these peak values (the red dots) as population increases from 0 to 2.5 million is plotted in Figure 2:

Examples

1. A residential zone at the centre of the map of a city of 1 million will have a land value bonus of 150.  Considering land value ranges between 0 and 255, this is obviously a very big bonus!
2. Your city uses the largest map size (256 x 256 tiles) and the population is 1 million.  A residential zone is located 102 tiles, or 102 / 256 = 40%, from the map centre.  Thus the land value bonus is 150 x 40% / 80% = 75.

Miscellaneous Effects

Pollution and crime affect land values.  The pollution value and crime values for each tile are used to determine the effect on land value for that tile.  There are neutral values of pollution and crime which will have no effect upon land value for that tile.  Above and below these neutral levels there will be an effect on land value.  A negative effect lowers land value whereas a positive effect raises land value.  The following table shows the relative effects of pollution and crime (note that these are not actual land values but are only for comparison):

Neutral   Above-Neutral   Below-Neutral
 Value       Effect          Effect       Item
~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~   
    0          -1000             -        Radioactive Contamination
   25          -1900           200        Crime
  400          -7000           250        Air Pollution
  100          -9000           100        Water Pollution
    0        -400000             -        Accumulating Garbage

The neutral values for some items are 0 because a tile either has that item or it doesn't (and in these cases there is no below-neutral effect).  As you can see, garbage accumulating on tiles because the landfills and/or incinerators are overloaded has very serious consequences for land values.  You can also see that Sims are more tolerant of air pollution than water pollution, as the former's neutral value is higher, its above-neutral penalty is lower, and its below-neutral bonus is greater.

Enacting the Homeless Shelter ordinance increases land values city-wide by 5%.

Building Effects

Certain buildings / structures have an effect upon land values. These buildings affect the land values of all other tiles in the entire city as indicated in the table below. A building can affect all residential tiles and/or all commercial tiles and/or all industrial tiles and/or all other tiles (non-RCI) in the city. A blank value in the table indicates that there is no effect. Any building not listed has no effect.

Res   Com   Ind   Other   Description
~~~   ~~~   ~~~   ~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~

Zoned Buildings

+ 3                       Commercial (High Land Value, Low Density)
-20   -10   - 1           Industrial (Dirty, Low Density)
-40   -20   - 2           Industrial (Dirty, Medium Density)
-60   -30   - 5           Industrial (Dirty, High Density)
- 7   + 4   + 2           Airport
- 7   + 2   + 4           Seaport
-80   -60   -20           Landfill

Transportation

-10   +12   + 5           Bus Station
-15   +10   +10           Train Station
-15   +10   +10           Subway Station
-15   +10   +10           Subway-to-Rail Station
+ 1   + 3   + 2           Roads (includes road bridges)
- 8   + 4   + 4           Highways (includes ramps and highway bridges)
- 4                       Rail (includes rail sheds and rail bridges)

City Services

+10   +15   +10   +10     Police Station
-30   -30   -30   -15     City Jail
+ 5   +12   +12   +10     Fire Station
      + 5   + 5   + 5     Hospital
+10   +10                 School
+10   +10                 City College
+15   +15                 Library
+15   +15                 Museum

Utilities

-90   -70   -15   -15     Coal Power Plant
-70   -55   -15   -15     Oil Power Plant
-60   -40   - 9   -14     Gas Power Plant
-50   -18   - 7   -12     Microwave Power Plant
-110  -80   -30   -12     Nuclear Power Plant
-50   -18   - 7   -12     Fusion Power Plant
-35   -14   - 4   - 9     Solar Power Plant
-15   -14   - 4   - 9     Wind Power Plant
-15   -15                 Power Lines
-10                       Water Pump
- 5   - 2                 Water Tower
-20   -12   - 5   -10     Water Treatment Plant
-20   -12   - 5   -10     Desalinization Plant
-20   -10   - 3   - 8     Recycling Centre
-50   -10   - 3   - 8     Incinerator
-35   -15   - 8   -12     Waste-to-Energy Incinerator

Recreation

+ 5   + 5   + 2   + 4     Flora (trees)
+50   +30   +10   + 8     Parks (Sm, Lg, Fountain, Ballpark, Pond, Playground)
+25   +25                 Newland Marina
+20   +25                 City Zoo

Rewards

+20   +25                 City Hall
+35   + 7   + 5   + 5     Country Club
+20   +25                 County Courthouse
-20   +18   +12   - 8     Defence Contractor
+ 5   +15   + 5   + 5     Geyser Park
+18   +18   + 5   + 4     Historic Statue
+12   +25                 Lighthouse
+23   +20   + 2   + 2     Mayor's House
+ 5   + 5   + 5   + 5     Medical Research Centre
-20   +12   +12   - 8     Military Base
+12   +20                 Performing Arts Centre
+100  +100  +100  +100    Quigley Castle (secret reward from cheat code)
+10   +10                 Science Centre
-40   -25   +10           Space Port
-20   +14                 Stadium
- 5   +35   - 4           Stock Exchange
-18   +12                 Theme Park
+ 5   +15                 University

Business Opportunities

-90   -50   -20           Toxic Waste Plant
-10   + 5                 GigaMall 9th Wonder of the World
-40   +15   + 5           Casino Row
-40   -20   -10   -15     Maximum Security Prison

"Generic" tiles are under construction, accumulating garbage, or abandoned.

For example, the Defence Contractor decreases all residential land values by 20, increases commercial and industrial land values by 18 and 12 respectively, and lowers land value of all other areas by 8.

In addition to the city-wide effects shown in the table above, buildings also have a local effect on the tiles in their immediate vicinity.  Thus high value items raise the value of neighbouring tiles, and low value items do the opposite.  Unfortunately I have not determined exactly how the simulation calculates this local effect.  But the table above can be used as an indicator of which items will be good for their neighbour's land values and which will not.

See also
Increasing land value: more than just trees
Museums and land value
Land value: the center of the equation
Increasing land value: strategies
Making money through buying electricity
Bonds, Taxes, and Neighbour Deals
Land value calculation bug
The map center effect

Knowledge Tree
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