Exploring the Pattern of Residential Space Differentiation in a Megacity’s Fringe Areas and Its Influence Mechanism: Insights from Beijing, China

Clarifying the residential space differentiation in urban fringe areas and its influencing factors are crucial for land use planning and sustainable urban development. This study investigates residential space differentiation and its influencing factors in the urban fringe area of Beijing from the perspective of housing rent. Utilizing multi-source data, including housing rent statistics from the China Real Estate Price Platform, remote sensing imagery, and POI big data, we employ the residential dissimilarity index for tenants, geographical detector, and MGWR model to analyze spatial patterns and driving mechanisms. The results show the following: (1) The residential space differentiation in the urban fringe area of Beijing is obvious, showing an “X”-shaped fragmentation pattern, with the northeast and southwest regions forming high differentiation values, while the northwest and southeast regions form low differentiation values. (2) The residential space differentiation in the marginal area shows a strong scale effect, which originates from the historic “collage” development mode of Beijing. (3) The differentiation of residential space in Beijing’s urban fringe area is sensitive to the spatial accessibility of residential areas to other facilities, and is less affected by the spatial proximity, such as the number of facilities. (4) The central potential and traffic potential factors are still the core driving forces shaping the differentiation pattern of residential space in the marginal area; the role of leisure supporting factors has become increasingly prominent, and it has gradually become the key factor strengthening residential space differentiation; and the influence of medical and commercial supporting factors is relatively weak.