Street art is promoted in most countries to intensify the cultural elements of the cityscape. Although street art provides cultural and social values, its impact on the prices of prewar historic property is still unknown. Therefore, an empirical study that examines the relationship between prewar shophouse prices and street art is needed to improve real estate professionals’ understanding of the historic preservation market. Using pre- and post-models for the years 2009 to 2019, this study systematically determined the actual location of 119 street art objects (in the form of sculptures and murals) and the 852 prewar shophouses sold in George Town, Penang. The price change of prewar shophouses correlates with the number of street art objects within 100 m, 500 m, and 1000 m of the properties. Due to the heterogeneous characteristics of the properties, six primary hedonic models were developed to extract the price premium of street art. This study has shown the impact of street art on a prewar commercial building, where an additional unit of sculpture could increase its price by 8.32%, 1.62%, and 0.74%, based on radii of 100 m, 500 m, and 1000 m, respectively, in the post-model (after 2012–2019). However, a mural painting has no significant effect on the price change of prewar shophouses. In addition, the position of street art (representing visibility) in the model was tested. The result shows that, unlike sculptures that were located at the back of prewar houses, such street art effects contributed positively to the price premium when they were located at the front of the buildings, with each additional unit of sculpture increasing the price premium of prewar houses by 1.13%. Sculptures as street art thus created a positive externality for the city, particularly with respect to the price premium for prewar shophouses.

Malaysia is a major exporter for petrochemical products. In line with this, the petrochemical industry is experiencing continuous growth and expansion. This study intends to examine the effect of the establishment of petrochemical hub on nearby housing price. Using residential transaction data of year 2016-2022 nearby Gebeng Industrial Area, we analyse the effect of the sitting of petrochemical hub via hedonic models. Our result indicates that the sitting of petrochemical hub will influence the housing price in which those located nearby will experience higher appreciation in property prices. This study is essential in clearing the doubt that housing price will be negatively influenced by petrochemical hub. Our findings further indicate that there is a need to educate local residents on the impact of the industry cluster on their house, in mitigating local opposition due to concern over declination of housing price due to the sitting of petrochemical hub.