Urban Mass Transit and Housing Price in China : An Exploratory Analysis of Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu

This study investigates the spatial impact of urban transit systems on housing prices with a focus on three Chinese metropolitan areas -- Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu. Based on a dataset of 7,348 housing properties located in 14 cities, a spatial hedonic modeling approach is adopted to assess the accessibility impact of three different types of urban mass transit systems -- bus, metro and intercity passenger rail -- on housing values. After controlling for physical characteristics of housing property, characteristics of the neighboring environment and locational accessibility, our study finds that the spatial impact of urban transit systems vary substantially across different metro areas as well as by different types of service. While a developed metro system in cities such as Guangzhou, tends to have a positive impact on housing prices, a negative impact is also confirmed in cities like Chengdu, where major metro networks are still under development. Conversely, the impact of the newly deployed intercity passenger rail services on housing prices are confirmed to be significant, although varied across different regions