Identifying the Spatial Heterogeneity of Housing Financialization in China : Insights from a Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression

With the deepening linkage between housing and finance, the financial attributes of housing have been increasing. Thus, housing financialization has become a worldwide phenomenon, one that is gradually emerging in China's real estate market and cannot be ignored. The amount of urban capital is an important manifestation of financialization, but few studies have considered the impact of spatial heterogeneity on urban capital amount—represented by loan balances (LOAN) on housing prices. To fill this gap, this study builds a dataset of housing prices and influencing factors for county-level units, using 2,109 counties in China, and analyzes the spatial scope of and spatial heterogeneity of housing financialization. The results show that, globally, LOAN has a significant positive effect on housing prices, and the impact direction is in line with theoretical expectations. Locally, spatial heterogeneity exists for the impact of LOAN on housing prices, and the phenomenon of housing financialization is mainly observed in China's eastern coastal area. We believe that this study can help enhance understanding of the spatial constraints on the impact of LOAN on housing prices and spatial heterogeneity of housing financialization in China. Moreover, they also provide a theoretical basis for policymakers to formulate spatially differentiated housing policies