Spatial Inequality in China’s Housing Market and the Driving Mechanism

Sidong Zhao,Kaixu Zhao,Ping Zhang

doi:10.3390/land10080841

Sidong Zhao, Kaixu Zhao + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/land10080841

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Abstract

Housing inequality is a widespread phenomenon around the world, and it varies widely across countries and regions. The housing market is naturally spatial in its attributes, and with the transformation of China’s urbanization, industrialization, and globalization, the spatial inequality in the housing market is increasingly severe. According to the geospatial differences in the housing market supply, demand, and price, and by integrating the influencing factors of economic, social, innovation, facility environment, and structural adjustment, this paper constructs a “spatial–supply–demand–price” integrated housing market inequality research framework based on the methods of CV, GI, and Geodetector, and it empirically studies the spatial inequality of provincial housing markets in China. The findings show that the spatial inequality in China’s housing market is significant and becomes increasingly serious. According to the study, we have confirmed the following. (1) Different factors vary greatly in influence, and they can be classified into three types, that is, “Key factors”, “Important factors”, and “Auxiliary factors”. (2) The spatial inequalities in housing supply, demand, and price vary widely in their driving mechanisms, but factors such as the added value of the tertiary industry, number of patents granted, and revenue affect all these three at the same time and have a comprehensive influence on the development and evolution of spatial inequalities in the housing market. (3) All the factors are bifactor-enhanced or non-linearly enhanced in relationships between every pair, and they are classified into three categories of high, medium, and low according to the mean of interacting forces; in particular, the factors of GDP, expenditure, permanent resident population, number of medical beds, and full-time equivalent of R&D personnel are in a stronger interaction with other factors. (4) Based on housing supply, demand, price, and their coordination, 31 provinces are classified into four types of policy zones, and the driving mechanisms of spatial inequalities in the housing market are further applied to put forward suggestions on policy design, which provides useful references for China and other countries to deal with housing spatial inequality.

Highlights

Housing is a core issue in urban and rural planning and spatial governance, and one of the most important tasks of many subjects such as science of land administration, spatial planning, human geography, and real estate economics
From 2010 to 2019, the coefficient of variation of Y1–Y4 gradually increased in fluctuations, and Y3 achieved a rapid growth in particular, indicating that the spatial inequality in the housing market development supply and demand in China was increasing over time
At the significance level of 5%, the mean of the corresponding factor forces (q) of Y1, Y2, and Y3 can be calculated to measure their influence on housing supply; the mean of the corresponding factor forces of Y4 and Y5 can be calculated to measure their influence on housing demand; and the corresponding factor forces of Y4 can be used to represent their influence on housing market prices

Summary

Introduction

Housing is a core issue in urban and rural planning and spatial governance, and one of the most important tasks of many subjects such as science of land administration, spatial planning, human geography, and real estate economics. The housing market is a vital element of the real estate economy, playing a pillar and leading role in the national economic system and having a fundamental and pioneering position in the development of social livelihood. Housing plays a critical role in the transformation of local economic and social development, and it leads to a significant spatial heterogeneity and complexity of housing market development [1]. The housing market dynamics and spatiotemporal patterns, housing inequality, and its driving mechanisms have been perennial themes of classical research and received long-standing attention from academic researchers, industry practitioners, and political administrators

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