THE IMPACT OF LYNAS ADVANCED MATERIAL PLANT (LAMP) TOWARDS SURROUNDING HOUSING MARKET PRICE

Abstract

Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) is situated in Gebeng industrial estate in Kuantan, Malaysia. Lynas plant processes rare earth elements that was trucked from Mt Weld Western Australia’s mine site to Fremantle Port and then brought to Malaysia. Rare elements are important in greenhouse emission reduction especially for their distinctive use in wind turbines, hybrid vehicles, automotive chemical action converters and others technologies. However, the construction and the opening of Lynas plant may have caused pollution to the environment and health risk towards surrounding area. Few case studies highlighted the negative impacts of radioactive element towards the surrounding housing market price. Using before-and-after analysis and sensitivity analysis, this research seeks to evaluate the impact from Lynas plant on the price of housing (single storey terrace) in its surrounding area. The findings show that Lynas plant could be one of the factors that have affected the housing market price in the area. This research concludes that, in general, there is an increase of house price after the opening of Lynas plant, however it is evident that there is a trend of increasing house price when the house is farther away from the plant. It is hoped that the findings of this research helps in answering some of the public speculations regarding the impact of the plant.