Particulate air pollution and real estate valuation: Evidence from 286 Chinese prefecture-level cities over 2004–2013

Abstract

Whether, and to what extent the air pollutions depress the real estate prices in China have increasingly become to be important issues yet to be well addressed. By applying a very unique panel data set on PM2.5 concentrations from 286 Chinese prefecture-level cities for 2004–2013, this study quantitatively assesses the impact of PM2.5 concentrations on real estate prices in China. The preferred empirical results demonstrate that: (1) PM2.5 pollutions have negatively significant effects on real estate prices in China. Specifically, 1μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 concentrations is associated with a decrease of 46RMB/m2 in real estate prices on average. (2) The estimated effects differ widely across Chinese cities, with higher-ranking cities being more substantially impacted. Additionally, the negative effects become increasingly statistically significant and quantitatively large over time. (3) Finally, 1μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 is responsible for about 5200 hundred million RMB losses in real estate valuations, approximately accounting for 0.9% GDP in 2013 of China. The findings are rather robust to various alternative settings.This article is part of a Virtual Special Issue entitled 'Comparing Sustainable Energy Policies in Northeast Asia: toward the harmonized Public-Private Partnership'.