Does high speed railway alleviate housing vacancy rates? Evidence from smart meter data of household electricity consumption

Zhaohua Wang, Junhua Ma, Bin Zhang, Yuantao Yang, Bo Wang and Wenhui Zhao

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2023, vol. 176, issue C

Abstract: While high-speed railway (HSR) often brings regional prosperity and a boom in real estate, it is unclear how the housing vacancy rate (HVR) changes after the opening of HSR. We identify the HVR changes in response to HSR operation by employing smart meter data of approximately 10 million households in more than 80 counties in the middle and lower regions of the Yangtze River Basin. We find that HSR opening could reduce the urban HVR by 1.64% and its reducing effect is stronger in district-urban than in county-urban areas. The decreasing effect of HSR operation on urban HVR is more noticeable in areas with better air quality, lower living costs, and more service industries. The opposite effects are observed in rural areas, where the HSR operation has increased the rural HVR by 1.16%. Our findings indicate that the siphoning effect of HSR exists on HVR as the rural population along the HSR is attracted to central cities, and positive HSR promotion strategies contribute to reducing urban HVR. With the development of transportation infrastructure, the difference in HVR due to urban and rural population mobility should be taken into account.

Keywords: Housing vacancy rate; High-speed railway; Smart meter data; Urban-rural differences; Siphoning effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856423002070
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transa:v:176:y:2023:i:c:s0965856423002070

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2023.103787

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice is currently edited by John (J.M.) Rose

More articles in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().