Amenities and disamenities: A hedonic analysis of the heterogeneous urban landscape in Shenzhen (China)

Abstract

Landscape amenities and disamenities are important factors for households in making residence decision. This study presents a hedonic analysis of the amenity and disamenity effects arising from the heterogeneous urban landscape in a Chinese city. The sample is composed of 358 apartment characteristics and transaction data collected directly from home owners in the central built-up area of Shenzhen. Four types of urban landscapes were included, namely urban parks, residential gardens, Shenzhen Bay, and urban villages. We applied a three-dimensional model (availability, accessibility, and visibility) to estimate the amenity-disamenity effects of these urban landscape features. The results indicated that residential gardens were the most attractive landscape (an average increase of 17.2% of housing price) and urban villages had disamenity effects (a decrease of 3.72% for visibility and 2.5% for availability). The visibility of landscape was more valued than the accessibility. The lower weight accorded to the availability variable suggested: both benefits and possible negative impacts related to urban parks and Shenzhen Bay could be embodied in home buyers' behaviour; and the unavoidability of urban villages. The findings could provide insights to the location and design of residential areas vis-à-vis amenity-disamenity landscape features in Chinese cities that are rapidly expanding and redeveloping. © 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2010 The Royal Geographical Society.