What exactly is "Land Value"?

[Jerico1000 2]

Hi folks noob question here:

I want to try making a thriving region but i really don't understand what land value is and how it differs from desirability?

Let's say for example if an area has high desirability for R$$$ but low land value does that mean R$$$ wont build there? how does that work cause im confused lol

[TheMurderousCricket 5,057]

Let me put it this way...

If you want to build a thriving region, then desirability should be your main concern.

Here are some of the differences between the two...

Land value is the measure of how pleasant an area is to an objective observer. The more parks, the cleaner air and the less traffic you have there, the higher your land value is.

Desirability, on the other hand, is the measure of how pleasant an area is to a subjective group of interest.

For instance, high traffic will hurt residential and agricultural zones... But it is something that the commercial areas love!

Residential areas, especially more affluent ones, are happy with elevations and hilly areas... But industry hates slopes!

In other words, you could say that desirability is a combination of factors that are subjectively interpreted by each of the developer types. Whereas, land value is the raw measure of how pleasant, clean and safe a given area is.

Also, do consider the fact that land value in SC4 does not play a significant role. Sometimes you can get really nice and expensive structures even in lower-valued neighborhoods. This is a huge change from SimCity 3000 in which land value was the absolute "holy grail" and the single most important variable to take care of if you wanted to build an impressive, rich city. In SC4 land value is no longer as important.