Impact of high speed rail on housing values: an observation from the Beijing-Shanghai line

This study investigates the ex post impact of the Beijing-Shanghai high speed rail (BJHSR) on housing values. A dataset including 1016 housing communities from the 22 cities along the BJHSR line are analyzed in the tradition of the hedonic pricing model using three estimation procedures: a robust ordinary-least square regression, a Box-Cox transformation technique and a spatial econometric model. After controlling for physical characteristics of housing property, neighboring environment and locational accessibility, the study finds that the establishment of the BJHSR service has a considerable regional impact (including local effects and spillover effects) on housing values in medium and small cities but a negligible impact in larger capital cities. This may be the results of the competitive nature of housing market in Chinese capital cities.