Speeding up Wellington's public transport by just minutes could boost house prices by tens of thousands of dollars, researchers say.
The Institute for the Study of Competition Regulation has spent the past year researching people's commuting decisions and their effect on house prices.
It says for every minute it takes to get to the city centre by public transport, the value of a house falls by $6700 - all other things being equal.
The institute's research director, Toby Daglish, says a house that is 10 minutes from town would be $67,000 cheaper than if that same house was in the city.
Dr Daglish says house prices could therefore be boosted by increasing the frequency of public transport.
The Real Estate Institute describes the research as ridiculous.
Wellington spokesperson Euon Murrell says there are other reasons why people live in the suburbs and it's silly to try to quantify the effect of travel in dollars per minute.
"I just cannot believe that people can sit round and work all this out. Haven't they got anything else better to do?"
