Technical Papers
Feb 21, 2022

Valuing the Micropublic Space: A Perspective from Beijing Housing Prices

Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 148, Issue 2

Abstract

Research on public space has long been a primary focus in urban studies. Most previous studies have measured public space from the macroscale perspective, such as the distance to the city center, and therefore cannot specify the social significance and economic benefits related to its quality or details. Hence, we fill this gap by evaluating the impact of quality and the presence of specific public space elements on housing prices after dividing public space into two parts: public space surrounding the gated community (PSSG) and public space inside the gated community (PSIG). We measure the visible and touchable features of PSSG and PSIG and estimate the effects and the monetization value of PSSG and PSIG on housing prices. Our empirical analyses focused on the area within the Beijing 5th Ring Road and revealed the following: For the PSSG, wider streets, higher buildings along the streets, higher street greenery levels, higher proportions of street wall continuity, and lower street spatial disorder can contribute to higher housing prices. For PSIG, the presence of most gated community facilities can raise housing prices. We infer that the economic value of PSSG and PSIG, including housing prices will increase by 546 yuan/m2 as the gated community gains a sport field.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51778319 and 71834005), Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program (Grant No. 20193080067), and the Chinese National Postdoctoral Foundation (Grant No. 2019TQ0166). The authors also thank Professor Yingjie Zhang for providing feedback for the research.

References

Adair, A., S. McGreal, A. Smyth, J. Cooper, and T. Ryley. 2000. “House prices and accessibility: The testing of relationships within the Belfast urban area.” Hous. Stud. 15 (5): 699–716. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673030050134565.
Albouy, D. 2016. “What are cities worth? Land rents, local productivity, and the total value of amenities.” Rev. Econ. Stat. 98 (3): 477–487. https://.https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00550.
Anselin, L. 2001. “Spatial econometrics.” In A companion to theoretical econometrics, edited by B. H. Baltagi, 310–330. Oxford: Blackwell.
Batty, M. 2013. “Big data, smart cities and city planning.” Dialogues Hum. Geogr. 3 (3): 274–279. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820613513390.
Brent, L. M., P. Stephen, and M. A. Richard. 2000. “Valuing urban wetlands: A property price approach.” Land Econ. 76 (1): 100–113. https://doi.org/10.2307/3147260.
Chen, J., and Y. Long. 2021. “Element identification, measurement, impact evaluation and spatial intervention of disorder urban public space.” [In Chinese.] Time Archit. 2021 (1): 44–50.
Craig, C. L., R. C. Brownson, S. E. Cragg, and A. L. Dunn. 2002. “Exploring the effect of the environment on physical activity: A study examining walking to work.” Am. J. Prev. Med. 23 (2): 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(02)00472-5.
Cui, N., H. Gu, T. Shen, and C. Feng. 2018. “The impact of micro-level influencing factors on home value: A housing price-rent comparison.” Sustainability 10 (12): 4343. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124343.
De Vries, S., S. M. Van Dillen, P. P. Groenewegen, and P. Spreeuwenberg. 2013. “Streetscape greenery and health: Stress, social cohesion and physical activity as mediators.” Soc. Sci. Med. 94: 26–33. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwr273.
Dubey, A., N. Naik, D. Parikh, R. Raskar, and C. A. Hidalgo. 2016. “Deep learning the city: Quantifying urban perception at a global scale.” In Proc., European Conf. on Computer Vision, 196–212. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Duncan, M. 2011. “The impact of transit-oriented development on housing prices in San Diego, CA.” Urban studies 48(1): 101–127.
Efthymiou, D., and C. Antoniou. 2013. “How do transport infrastructure and policies affect house prices and rents? Evidence from Athens, Greece.” Transp. Res. Part A Policy Pract. 52: 1–22. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2013.04.002.
Ewing, R., and S. Handy. 2009. “Measuring the unmeasurable: Urban design qualities related to walkability.” J. Urban Des. 14 (1): 65–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/13574800802451155.
Ewing, R., and R. Cervero. 2010. “Travel and the built environment: A meta-analysis.” J. Am. Plann. Assoc. 76 (3): 265–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944361003766766.
Ewing, R., O. Clemente, K. M. Neckerman, M. Purciel-Hill, J. W. Quinn, and A. Rundle. 2013. Measuring urban design: Metrics for livable places. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Forsyth, A. 2015. “What is a walkable place? The walkability debate in urban design.” Urban Des. Int. 20 (4): 274–292. https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2015.22.
Francis, J., B. Giles-Corti, L. Wood, and M. Knuiman. 2012. “Creating sense of community: The role of public space.” J. Environ. Psychol. 32 (4): 401–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2012.07.002.
Fu, X., T. Jia, X. Zhang, S. Li, and Y. Zhang. 2019. “Do street-level scene perceptions affect housing price in Chinese megacities? An analysis using open access datasets and deep learning.” PLoS One 14 (5): e0217505. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217505.
Geng, B., H. Bao, and Y. Liang. 2015. “A study of the effect of a high-speed rail station on spatial variations in housing price based on the hedonic model.” Habitat Int. 49: 333–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.06.005.
Grant, J., and L. Mittelsteadt. 2004. “Types of gated communities.” Environ. Plann. B Plann. Des. 31 (6): 913–930. https://doi.org/10.1068%2Fb3165.
Griew, P., M. Hillsdon, C. Foster, E. Coombes, A. Jones, and P. Wilkinson. 2013. “Developing and testing a street audit tool using Google Street View to measure environmental supportiveness for physical activity.” Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Activity 10 (1): 103. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-10-103.
Hammer, T. R., R. E. Coughlin, and E. T. Horn IV. 1974. “The effect of a large urban park on real estate value.” J. Am. Inst. Planners 40 (4): 274–277. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944367408977479.
Hamstead, Z. A., D. Fisher, R. T. Ilieva, S. A. Wood, T. McPhearson, and P. Kremer. 2018. “Geolocated social media as a rapid indicator of park visitation and equitable park access.” Comput. Environ. Urban Syst. 72: 38–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2018.01.007.
Harvey, C., L. Aultman-Hall, S. E. Hurley, and A. Troy. 2015. “Effects of skeletal streetscape design on perceived safety.” Landscape Urban Plann. 142: 18–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.05.007.
Harvey, C., L. Aultman-Hall, A. Troy, and S. E. Hurley. 2017. “Streetscape skeleton measurement and classification.” Environ. Plann. B Urban Anal. City Sci. 44 (4): 668–692. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0265813515624688.
Hillsdon, M., J. Panter, C. Foster, and A. Jones. 2006. “The relationship between access and quality of urban green space with population physical activity.” Public Health 120 (12): 1127–1132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2006.10.007.
Irwin, E. G., P. W. Jeanty, and M. D. Partridge. 2014. “Amenity values versus land constraints: The spatial effects of natural landscape features on housing values.” Land Econ. 90 (1): 61–78. https://doi.org/10.3368/le.92.2.203.
Jennings, V., and O. Bamkole. 2019. “The relationship between social cohesion and urban green space: An avenue for health promotion.” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 16 (3): 452. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16030452.
Jim, C. Y., and W. Y. Chen. 2006. “Impacts of urban environmental elements on residential housing prices in Guangzhou (China).” Landscape and urban planning 78 (4): 422–434.
Jin, J., and J. Yang. 2020. “Effects of sampling approaches on quantifying urban forest structure.” Landscape Urban Plann. 195: 103722. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103722.
Kearney, A. R. 2006. “Residential development patterns and neighborhood satisfaction: Impacts of density and nearby nature.” Environ. Behav. 38 (1): 112–139. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0013916505277607.
Kim, E. J., and H. Kim. 2020. “Neighborhood walkability and housing prices: A correlation study.” Sustainability 12 (2): 593. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020593.
Law, S., C. I. Seresinhe, Y. Shen, and M. Gutierrez-Roig. 2020. “Street-Frontage-Net: Urban image classification using deep convolutional neural networks.” Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 34 (4): 681–707. https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2018.1555832.
Li, H., Y. D. Wei, Y. Wu, and G. Tian. 2019. “Analyzing housing price in Shanghai with open data: Amenity, accessibility and urban structure.” Cities 91: 165–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.11.016.
Li, J., Y. Long, and A. Dang. 2018a. “Live-work-play centers of Chinese cities: Identification and temporal evolution with emerging data.” Comput. Environ. Urban Syst. 71: 58–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2018.04.002.
Li, X., C. Ratti, and I. Seiferling. 2018b. “Quantifying the shade provision of street trees in urban landscape: A case study in Boston, USA, using Google Street View.” Landscape Urban Plann. 169: 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.08.011.
Li, X., C. Zhang, W. Li, R. Ricard, Q. Meng, and W. Zhang. 2015. “Assessing street-level urban greenery using Google Street View and a modified green view index.” Urban For. Urban Greening 14 (3): 675–685. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2015.06.006.
Liisa, T. 1997. “The amenity value of the urban forest: An application of the hedonic pricing method.” Landscape Urban Plann. 37: 211–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-2046(97)80005-9.
Lin, L. 2018. “Leisure-time physical activity, objective urban neighborhood built environment, and overweight and obesity of Chinese school-age children.” J. Transp. Health 10: 322–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2018.05.001.
Liu, L., E. A. Silva, C. Wu, and H. Wang. 2017. “A machine learning-based method for the large-scale evaluation of the qualities of the urban environment.” Comput. Environ. Urban Syst. 65: 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2017.06.003.
Lofland, L. H. 2017. The public realm: Exploring the city’s quintessential social territory. London: Routledge.
Long, Y., and Y. Ye. 2016. “Human-scale urban form: Measurements, performances, and urban planning & design interventions.” South Archit. 36 (5): 39–45.
Long, Y., and L. Liu. 2017. “How green are the streets? An analysis for central areas of Chinese cities using Tencent Street View.” PLoS One 12 (2): e0171110. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0171110.
Long, Y., and Y. Ye. 2019. “Measuring human-scale urban form and its performance.” Landscape Urban Plann. 191: 103612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103612.
Low, S. 2020. On the plaza: The politics of public space and culture. Austin, TX: Univ. of Texas Press.
Lu, Y., C. Sarkar, and Y. Xiao. 2018. “The effect of street-level greenery on walking behavior: Evidence from Hong Kong.” Soc. Sci. Med. 208: 41–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.05.022.
Lynch, K. 1960. The image of the city. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Madanipour, A. 1996. Design of urban space: An inquiry into a socio-spatial process. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
McMillan, M. 1974. “Open space preservation in developing areas: An alternative policy.” Land Econ. 50 (4): 410–418. https://doi.org/10.2307/3145009.
Mehta, V. 2014. “Evaluating public space.” J. Urban Des. 19 (1): 53–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2013.854698.
Miao, P. 2003. “Deserted streets in a jammed town: The gated community in Chinese cities and its solution.” J. Urban Des. 8 (1): 45–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357480032000064764.
Miller, H. J., and K. Tolle. 2016. “Big data for healthy cities: Using location-aware technologies, open data and 3D urban models to design healthier built environments.” Built Environ. 42 (3): 441–456. https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.42.3.441.
Norcross, C. 1976. Open space communities in the market place: A survey of public acceptance. Statistics by Sanford Goodkin. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. Microfilms.
Osland, L., and I. Thorsen. 2008. “Effects on housing price of urban attraction and labor-market accessibility.” Environ. Plann. A 40 (10): 2490–2509. https://doi.org/10.1068%2Fa39305.
Rundle, A. G., M. D. Bader, C. A. Richards, K. M. Neckerman, and J. O. Teitler. 2011. “Using Google Street View to audit neighborhood environments.” Am. J. Prev. Med. 40 (1): 94–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2010.09.034.
Pandit, R., M. Polyakov, S. Tapsuwan, and T. Moran. 2013. “The effect of street trees on property value in Perth, Western Australia.” Landscape Urban Plann. 110: 134–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.11.001.
Poudyal, N. C., D. G. Hodges, and C. D. Merrett. 2008. “A hedonic analysis of the demand for and benefits of urban recreation parks.” Land Use Policy 26 (4): 975–983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2008.11.008.
Richardson, H. W., P. Gordon, M. J. Jun, E. Heikkila, R. Peiser, and D. Dale-Johnson. 1990. “Residential property values, the CBD, and multiple nodes: Further analysis.” Environ. Plann. A 22 (6): 829–833. https://doi.org/10.1068%2Fa220829.
Shen, Q., W. Zeng, Y. Ye, S. M. Arisona, S. Schubiger, R. Burkhard, and H. Qu. 2017. “Streetvizor: Visual exploration of human-scale urban forms based on street views.” IEEE Trans. Visual Comput. Graphics 24 (1): 1004–1013. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2017.2744159.
Skogan, W. G. 1992. Disorder and decline: Crime and the spiral of decay in American neighborhoods. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press.
Talen, E. 2000. “The problem with community in planning.” J. Plann. Lit. 15 (2): 171–183. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F08854120022092971.
Tankel, S. B. 1986. The importance of open space in the urban pattern, cities and space. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Tang, J., and Y. Long. 2019. “Measuring visual quality of street space and its temporal variation: Methodology and its application in the Hutong area in Beijing.” Landscape Urban Plann. 191: 103436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.09.015.
Ukkusuri, S., L. F. Miranda-Moreno, G. Ramadurai, and J. Isa-Tavarez. 2012. “The role of built environment on pedestrian crash frequency.” Saf. Sci. 50 (4): 1141–1151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2011.09.012.
Villanueva, K., M. Knuiman, A. Nathan, B. Giles-Corti, H. Christian, S. Foster, and F. Bull. 2014. “The impact of neighborhood walkability on walking: Does it differ across adult life stage and does neighborhood buffer size matter?” Health Place 25: 43–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2013.10.005.
Wu, F. 2005. “Rediscovering the ‘gate’ under market transition: From work-unit compounds to commodity housing enclaves.” Hous. Stud. 20 (2): 235–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/026730303042000331754.
Wu, C., X. Ye, F. Ren, Y. Wan, P. Ning, and Q. Du. 2016. “Spatial and social media data analytics of housing price in Shenzhen, China.” PLoS One 11 (10): e0164553. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164553.
Wu, C., X. Ye, Q. Du, and P. Luo. 2017. “Spatial effects of accessibility to parks on housing prices in Shenzhen, China.” Habitat Int. 63: 45–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.03.010.
Xu, M., and Z. Yang. 2009. “Design history of China’s gated cities and neighbourhoods: Prototype and evolution.” Urban Des. Int. 14 (2): 99–117. https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2009.12.
Yang, S., W. Tan, and L. Yan. 2021. “Evaluating accessibility benefits of opening gated communities for pedestrians and cyclists in China: A case study of Shanghai.” Sustainability 13 (2): 598. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020598.
Ye, Y., H. Xie, J. Fang, H. Jiang, and D. Wang. 2019. “Daily accessed street greenery and housing price: Measuring economic performance of human-scale streetscapes via new urban data.” Sustainability 11 (6): 1741–1761. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061741.
Zhang, B., G. Xie, B. Xia, and C. Zhang. 2012. “The effects of public green spaces on residential property value in Beijing.” J. Resour. Ecol. 03 (3): 243–252. https://doi.org/10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2012.03.007.
Zhang, Y., and R. Dong. 2018. “Impacts of street-visible greenery on housing price: Evidence from a hedonic price model and a massive street view image dataset in Beijing.” ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 7 (3): 104–122. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi7030104.
Zhang, Y., B. Yang, M. Zhang, G. Zhang, S. Song, and L. Qi. 2019. “Exploring location pattern of commercial stores in Shichahai, Beijing from a street centrality perspective.” Chin. Geogr. Sci. 29 (3): 503–516. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-019-1045-z.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 148Issue 2June 2022

History

Received: Apr 27, 2021
Accepted: Sep 3, 2021
Published online: Feb 21, 2022
Published in print: Jun 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jul 21, 2022

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Wanting Hsu [email protected]
Master’s Student, School of Architecture, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing 100084, China. Email: [email protected]
Yuyang Zhang [email protected]
School of Architecture, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing 100084, China. Email: [email protected]
Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Hang Lung Center for Real Estate, Key Laboratory of Eco Planning & Green Building, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing 100084, China (corresponding author). Email: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Download citation

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

View Options

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share