DYNAMICS OF LAND PRICE AND LAND USE CHANGE: A CASE OF SAVAR MUNICIPALITY, BANGLADESH

Societies are becoming more and more multifaceted due to population increases and technology advances. Owing to scarcity of land, price tends to rise as because local government invests in infrastructure, transportation, education and health sector. Land is not only a wealth-creating resource for sustenance but also the basic resource requirement for all development. Increasing urbanization is responsible for land price. Every land use shows different land price in terms of urban services and facilities, land use types, accessibility and social and environmental factors. Hence, it is necessary to strike a balance between the urban activities and the associate land conversion in order to attain sustained growth over a longer period of time. Savar municipality of Dhaka district is situated at a distance of about 29 km to the north-west of Dhaka City on the Dhaka-Aricha highway (“Community Series” Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2001). Due to rapid urbanization the rate of rural-urban migration is higher in this municipality. The supply of urban land is limited and demand for industrial, commercial as well as residential land is growing. Consequently, the stock of open spaces has been declining day by day with the increase of population at an alarming rate. This research has concentrated its focus on the effects of expected land use change on land price of Savar municipality. The study has observed that there is a strong relationship in between land use change and land price.