Walkability Assessment in a Rapidly Urbanizing City and Its Relationship with Residential Estate Value

Jingyuan Zhang, Puay Yok Tan, Hui Zeng and Ye Zhang
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Jingyuan Zhang: Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117566, Singapore
Puay Yok Tan: Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117566, Singapore
Hui Zeng: School of Urban Planning and Design, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Ye Zhang: Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117566, Singapore

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 8, 1-20

Abstract: Walkability has increasingly been recognized as an important factor for sustainable urban development that, however, has seldom been investigated in rapid urbanizing cities, especially in the Asian context. This paper assessed walkability in Futian District in the central area of Shenzhen, which has undergone very rapid urbanization within a short period of time. Walkability was assessed for 2013 and 2018 using a walkability index adapted from Walk Score. It was compared with housing prices of 215 randomly selected residential buildings, to further explore the relationships between walkability and residential estate value, provided as one practical application of the assessment of walkability in urban management. Our results show that Futian District has low walkability level, although walkability has been generally improved from 2013 to 2018. A high spatial variation of walkability level within this area was observed in both years. Overall, there was a negative relationship between walkability and housing prices (significant only in 2018), which is inconsistent with studies elsewhere. The results suggest that the housing prices in Futian District are more strongly influenced by other factors rather than by walkability. In addition, the ability of the walkability model to explicitly delineate spatial variation of walkability level makes it a powerful tool to be applied in urban planning and management. Results of this study also have practical applications, which can be used as a reference for residents’ home selection and enable them to make informed decisions in selecting walkable neighborhoods with acceptable prices.

Keywords: walkability assessment; public facilities; rapidly urbanizing district; spatial and temporal variation; residential estate value; car-dependence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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