Economic Valuation of Historical Houses of Julfa Quarter of Isfahan According to the Concept of Willingness to Pay with the Social Benefit Approach

Iranian historical houses have been built based on lifestyle, behavior and beliefs, knowledge and art which are based on Islamic-Persian identity. Their conservation is like respecting national identity and recognizing their social benefit is a criterion for the amount of necessary facilities to preserve these valuable elements. Since assessment of the social benefit of any product or service requires economic valuation, the aim of this paper is economic valuation of valuable historical houses for recognizing the amount of their social benefit. This study is an applied research and its methodology is survey research. The case study is Julfa historic quarter. This study aims to answer this question: how much is the economic value of historic houses of Julfa quarter? And which factors do affect citizens’ willingness to pay for purchasing historic houses? Hence, economic valuation of historical houses based on the concept of willingness to pay is investigated by contingent valuation method (CVM). The results show that 90% of citizens were interested in historical houses and more than 70% of them said if they were rich, they would buy historical houses in the case study area. Meanwhile, they assessed the value of this area’s historical houses 4/7% more than the average value of neighboring non-historical houses. This means that quantized value of the social benefit of historical houses is 4/7% more than their financial value in non-historical conditions. Based on the estimation results of regression models, the family size and career variables have affected the citizens’ willingness to pay for the purchase of valuable historical houses.