Accessibility of Public Service Facilities in Beijing and Its Impact on Housing Prices

Abstract

With the purpose of analyzing the spatial distribution and fairness of public service facilities in Beijing, Gauss two-step floating catchment area method is applied to assess the accessibility within the Fifth Ring Road of Beijing in 5 dimensions, including education, healthcare, commerce, transportation, and culture leisure service, and the weighted composite accessibility is calculated. Then, hedonic price model is adopted to further analyze the impact of public service facilities accessibility on housing prices. It is found that the accessibility of public service facilities is unevenly distributed, and most resources are concentrated on certain district. The accessibility of education and healthcare service is significantly higher in the central urban area than that in other regions, and commerce accessibility in the eastern area is higher than that in the western. Transportation and culture leisure resources are relatively scattered. There is a significant positive impact of healthcare and transportation accessibility on housing price, a significant negative impact of commerce accessibility and no significant effect of education and culture leisure accessibility on housing price. The comprehensive accessibility is also proved to have a significant positive impact on housing price. These results provide support for urban planning, especially for the rational distribution of public service facilities.