Valuing Urban Green Spaces: A Decade of Access and Residents’ Willingness to Pay in Shanghai

Huilin Liang (), Lin Zhu, Hao Liu, Qi Yan and Yuqi Gu
Additional contact information
Huilin Liang: School of Landscape Architecture, Nanjing Forestry University, No. 159, Longpan Road, Nanjing 210037, China
Lin Zhu: School of Landscape Architecture, Nanjing Forestry University, No. 159, Longpan Road, Nanjing 210037, China
Hao Liu: School of Landscape Architecture, Nanjing Forestry University, No. 159, Longpan Road, Nanjing 210037, China
Qi Yan: School of Landscape Architecture, Nanjing Forestry University, No. 159, Longpan Road, Nanjing 210037, China
Yuqi Gu: School of Landscape Architecture, Nanjing Forestry University, No. 159, Longpan Road, Nanjing 210037, China

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: This study aims to investigate residents’ marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for accessible urban green spaces (UGSs) in Shanghai from 2012 to 2021, using a comprehensive UGS accessibility (UGSA) indicator based on an improved nSFCA method. The UGSA indicator is incorporated into a hedonic pricing model, and multiple global regressions with multilevel data structures are employed to identify a suitable and accurate estimation strategy to determine the impact of UGSA on housing prices. The results show that WTP for UGSA varies significantly across categories and years, as well as between homebuyers and renters, with homebuyers having a much higher WTP compared to renters. Furthermore, neighborhood UGSA is generally more preferred than utmost UGSA. By differentiating UGSA into “neighborhood” and “utmost” levels and conducting a decade-long longitudinal analysis of both homebuyers and renters, this study contributes to two key academic debates: the spatial scaling of amenity valuation and the role of property rights in the capitalization of public goods. Employing a robust spatial econometric framework, our research provides novel insights into these complex dynamics within a hyper-dense urban context. The research contributes to the understanding of the economic value of UGSA by providing valuable insights for urban planning, policy-making, and real estate development, highlighting the importance of considering the spatial, temporal, and heterogeneous aspects of UGSA when estimating its economic value.

Keywords: green space; hedonic; housing price; park; economic value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/9/1835/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/9/1835/ (text/html)

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:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:9:p:1835-:d:1744983

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().