Effects of Public Transport Accessibility and Property Attributes on Housing Prices in Polycentric Beijing

Abstract

The public transit system is often developed in tandem with urban growth, bringing improved accessibility and raising housing prices around stations. The impact of public transport accessibility on housing prices demand in-depth empirical studies to understand the underlying factors. The confounding influence of polycentric cities, contrasting with monocentric ones, deserves more attention. We studied the effects of metro and bus accessibility on housing prices along metro lines 6, 7, 9 and 14 in Beijing under the polycentric scenario. Other property attributes, including building features, location characteristics and neighborhood amenities, served as explanatory variables. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were used to build the global (whole-study area) and local hedonic price models, respectively. The results indicated that GWR performed better than OLS in predicting the effects of public transport accessibility on housing prices. Residential properties with access to more metro lines and stations and bus stops were associated with higher housing prices, with metro stations exerting more effects. The premiums of monocentric and polycentric models showed similar spatial patterns. In polycentric Beijing, the premiums of metro accessibility were higher in the eastern part, and the effect of bus accessibility showed circular distribution. Beijing could be regarded as a monocentric city on a global scale, but the influence of subcenters should be considered in a local polycentric regression model. The findings can inform urban planning concerning land use and public transport provision in Beijing and selecting research models in cognate studies.