Urban Structure, Housing Prices and the Double Role of Amenity: A Study of Nanjing, China

The skyrocketing housing prices in Chinese metropolises have generated broad concerns. Recent studies have moved beyond hedonic approaches considering housing attributes, location, and neighborhood by introducing urban structure and amenities as factors in housing prices. However, the role of amenities is often simplified, and the influence of urban structure is explored mainly using distance to CBD or concentric rings. This study more carefully examines the role of amenities in determining housing prices through a case study of Nanjing, China, adopting the self-organizing map and spatial regime modeling using remote sensing and point-of-interest data. We find that the regime of urban structure sways the hedonic factors' significance and positivity. Amenities play a double role in housing markets, as they act both as a determinant of housing price and an indicator of urban structure. Our study provides an improved framework of housing prices, which is applicable to studies of other cities. It also suggests that public policies should consider amenities more carefully to make cities more polycentric and livable.