Coasean noises

I loved this picture making the rounds on Twitter.

So good. pic.twitter.com/fXFRInFEog

— Erin Delahunty (@della79) July 30, 2018

And so I made a small suggestion.

Where residential development is proposed adjacent to a noisy thing, put a note on the title that noise control officers will entertain no complaints from those properties about the noisy thing. If it is on the Land Information Memorandum, it will be noted by buyers. Developers then have a few options:

• Develop as usual, know that the buyers will see the noise notice on the LIM, and sell at a lower price;
• Install more substantial sound-control insulation than would otherwise be in place, and note the insulation in the marketing for the properties;
• Pay the owners of the adjacent noisy thing for abatement of the noise.

Which is chosen will depend on how much people hate noise, how expensive it is to insulate the houses, and how expensive it would be for the noisy thing to be less noisy. 

Making it very explicit on the title, and potentially requiring active explicit disclosure of the noise restrictions and sign-off by the buyers, helps guard against the usual political economy worry that people will buy the property at a discount (because of the noise) then lobby for the banning of the noise.