An analysis of the noise pollution influence on the housing prices in the central area of the city of Bari

With reference to the European goals concerning the noise pollution control, the present research aims at verifying the existence and, eventually, determining the influence level of the acoustic component on the selling prices in the residential segment. The analysis has been contextualized to the city of Bari (Southern Italy) and the study sample concerns one-hundred residential units recently sold, for which the main influencing factors in the selling price formation processes have been identified. The implemented methodological tool is a data-driven technique, that employs a genetic algorithm to identify the functional relationships among the considered variables. The application to the case study has allowed the identification of a model characterized by good statistical accuracy and an algebraic form of simple interpretation, which denotes an appreciable contribution of the noise pollution factor on the housing prices.