Polycentric urban structure and housing price in the transitional China: Evidence from Hangzhou

• This research examines dynamical effects of the polycentric urban structure on housing prices in Hangzhou.
• Spatial hedonic price models are developed to eliminate the spatial dependence of housing price.
• Three urban centers exert increasing influence on the housing prices from 2003 to 2011.
• Urban planning policy and market forces drive the polycentric urban development in Hangzhou.

With the rapid urbanization, the urban spatial structure has undergone great changes in China. The urban spatial structure of some big cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, has developed from monocentric to polycentric. Taking six administrative districts in Hangzhou as study areas, we collected housing data in 2003, 2008, and 2011 and then established traditional hedonic price models and spatial models to empirically analyze the dynamic impacts of three urban centers on housing price in Hangzhou. Results show that Hangzhou is becoming a city with a three-center urban spatial structure, and urban centers significantly affect housing price. The West Lake (landscape center) plays a major role in the spatial structure of housing price; the price gradient and the influence degree of the West Lake is much larger than those of Wulin Square (traditional CBD) and Qianjiang New City (new CBD). On the whole, the influence of urban centers on housing price gradually increases. Price elasticity and price gradient both increase from 2003 to 2011. The findings also reveal that the urban development has a history inertia, and the urban planning policy and the market forces drive the polycentric urban development in Hangzhou.