The Spatial Structure Evolution of China's High-Speed Rail Network and Its Impacts on Real Estate Investment

Abstract

The construction of China's large-scale high-speed rail (HSR) could exert a significant impact on the connectivity of urban networks in the long run. Through the dominance index of city nodes and the strength index of city links, the evolution of Chinese HSR networks has been explored based on frequency flow data from 2007 to 2017. Meanwhile, this paper uses a spatial econometric model to test the impact of the evolution of HSR networks on real estate investment agglomeration. Our examination shows that, as China's HSR network expands spatially, connectivity between cities improves, and the spatial structure of China's urban systems tends to be less hierarchical and polycentric. HSR networks promote the spatial agglomeration of real estate investment in cities connected by HSR. Although the influence of population scale, manufacturing scale, per capita GDP, and the degree of openness on real estate investment is greater than that of HSR network connection, the impact of the proportion of residential (commercial service) land and per capita GDP on real estate investment is less than that of HSR network connection. China's HSR network connection can expand the spatial agglomeration effect of site cities' real estate investment. The urban land use structure, such as the proportion of residential (commercial) land and the degree of openness, can promote a spatial spillover effect of real estate investment.