Impact of Accessibility on Residential Location Choice: A Case Study of Hangzhou, China

This study examines the factors that influence households’ location choice in the context of rapid urbanization in Hangzhou, China, where new housing and transportation infrastructure are expanding. A conditional logit model based on community scale is developed to consider the impact of location accessibility characteristics on households’ housing choices, as well as the differences in choices across households. Considering the background of high house prices, households will prefer house prices as the determining factor in the tradeoff between housing prices and accessibility. The multinomial logit model model of joint selection of housing prices and location is constructed to study the differences in the preferences of different types of households in housing choices. The study finds that (1) accessibility and housing prices are significant factors that affect residential location choice. Low-income families place more importance on public transportation conditions near the community. (2) Accessibility factors, including commuting time and the convenience of transportation facilities, such as the subway and expressway exit, have significant explanatory power on residential location choice. Holding other factors constant, for every minute increase in commuting time, the odds of residents choosing a residential location decrease by 0.96 times. (3) Residents with different socioeconomic characteristics exhibited certain differences in their housing price and accessibility preferences. Specifically, households with a college degree or higher are 8.59 times more likely to choose a residential area away from the city center and at a higher price than those with less education.