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• Overall value of greenery increased, despite increasing scarcity. • Preferences for different greenery types evolve over time. • Greening efforts generate direct economic benefits through real estate prices. • Improving and promoting greenery can boost urban ecosystem services. Cities can experience losing greenery to urban development, while also pursuing greening efforts. However, whether and how long-term changes in land-use and policies affect ecosystem services and greenery preferences is not well-known, due to the paucity of longitudinal data. We created a novel land cover fraction map in Singapore from 1990 to 2020 using high-resolution satellite imagery, finding an overall decline in greenery area within public housing towns and evidence of greenery intensification in the remaining greenery area. Hedonic pricing analysis suggested positive and increasing marginal effects of greenery area on real estate prices; for each apartment unit this was S$39,130 ± S $ 15,951 (9.2% ± 3.8% of the average real estate price) during the 1990s; S$46,049 ± S $ 14,124 (10.9% ± 3.3%) during the 2000s; and S$50,048 ± S $ 17,079 (11.7% ± 4.0%) during the 2010s. An increased preference for tree cover and decreased preference for grass cover was observed, reflecting long-term changes in urban land-use and greening efforts. Our results suggest that urban greenery has become increasingly valuable to home owners and society in Singapore, occurring alongside decreasing quantity and increasing quality of urban greenery, illustrating how combining careful development with greening efforts can lead to an increase in urban ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective urban planning depends on knowing homebuyers' preferences for neighbourhood features that provide different amenities, such as managed parks and trees. As the expansion of tropical urban areas into biodiversity hotspots is predicted to more than double by 2030, knowing homebuyers utility from different vegetation types can contribute to global biodiversity conservation strategies. We used the hedonic pricing method to estimate the economic value of managed, spontaneous and high conservation value vegetation to Singapore public housing using a mixed effects model. On average vegetation had positive effects on property selling price, accounting for 3% of the average property's value, or a total of S$179 million for all public housing apartments sold over 13 months. These effects were almost entirely driven by managed vegetation, which had positive marginal effects on price for 98.1% of properties. The estimated marginal effects of high conservation value vegetation were mostly negative (90.5%% properties), but positive for properties without much managed vegetation nearby. The estimated marginal effects of spontaneous vegetation were mixed and mostly small. To reconcile the goals of protecting high conservation value vegetation and maximising homeowner utility, new public housing developments should contain more managed vegetation but be away from high conservation value vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]