Amenity value in post-industrial Chinese cities: the case of Nanjing

Many Chinese cities are in a transition from industrial to post-industrial urban economies. In this process of urban restructuring, land use becomes polycentric and fragmented. More sophisticated models are needed to estimate the amenity effects of this complex residential environment. This article assesses the relative housing price effects of neighborhood characteristics and accessibility in Nanjing, China. This is achieved with a hedonic price model that incorporates detailed spatial measures, geographical contingency, and a modified version of Alonso’s (1964) general theory of land rent. A crucial finding is that the effect of job accessibility on house price varies depending upon the specific sector of employment. Accessibility to jobs in the public and private service sectors has strong positive effects. However, housing proximity to heavy industries has a spatially nonlinear effect: negative in close proximity, but positive at a larger distance. Second, when we control for job accessibility, access to public transport has an added positive effect. Finally, neighborhood “quality” (defined in terms of nearby amenities) is also relevant, but far less than access to service employment. This research shows that Nanjing’s housing prices are affected by different residential characteristics than those with dominant price effects in Western cities.