Evolution of the Structure of the Urban Land-Price System in China Based on the Rank-Size Law

Xiaoyu Liu and Liangjie Xin
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Xiaoyu Liu: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Liangjie Xin: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: China’s cities have experienced rapid and uneven development in recent decades, which influenced urban land prices crucially. Understanding the distribution of the urban land-price system and its evolution would help to provide an in-depth understanding of the development of China’s urban system. Therefore, we combined rank-size law and fractal theory to analyze the patterns and variations of the rank-size distributions of China’s urban land-price system based on land transfer data for 2007–2019. We concluded the following: (1) the rank-size law explains the distribution of the urban land-price system in China—the system was balanced and showed an equilibrium–disequilibrium development; (2) the actual land prices were higher than the theoretical land prices in southeastern China, especially in urban agglomerations, while they were lower in northwestern China; (3) the number of cities located in China’s urban development system was decreasing, and the unevenness of urban land-price system was increasing; and (4) the imbalance of land-price rank-size distributions was higher in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei and Guangdong–Hongkong–Macau Greater Bay Area urban agglomerations, while they were more balanced in the Chengdu–Chongqing and Central Plains urban agglomerations. We suggest that the development of small cities in China has a large upside, which should be noticed.

Keywords: land transfer; land price; rank-size law; fractal theory; China; urban agglomeration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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