Accessibility to transit, by transit, and property prices: Spatially varying relationships

Abstract

Accessibility to transit facilities is perceived to affect property prices. However, accessibility by transit has rarely elicited adequate scholarly attention in property price analyses. Additionally, previous studies on how transit accessibility affects property prices mainly focused on rail and bus rapid transit systems, while conventional bus transit, which is very popular in many contexts, has seldom been investigated. Moreover, whether there is spatial heterogeneity in the price (or capitalization) effects of conventional bus accessibility remains to be explored. To fill these gaps, this study aims to investigate the role of accessibility to and by bus in determining housing prices in a bus-dependent city where urban transit service is offered mainly by a bus system rather than other transit systems. Using a database of 4966 condominium units in Xiamen, China, this study develops a battery of spatial econometric models to estimate global and local relationships between to-bus and by-bus accessibility and housing prices. The findings are as below: (1) to-bus accessibility (measured by the number of nearby bus stops) is positively associated with nearby housing prices; (2) by-bus accessibility (measured by travel time to city centers by bus and bus frequency) significantly affects nearby housing prices; (3) spatial heterogeneity exists in the price effects of bus accessibility; and (4) bus frequency exerts a larger price effect in the peripheral area than in the central. Finally, practical and policy implications are discussed.