Are migrants willing to pay more for better housing? The amenity effect in China's urban housing markets

Menglan Liu; Jian-gang Shi; Jianfu Shen; Eddie Chi Man Hui

doi:10.1016/j.seps.2025.102224

Are migrants willing to pay more for better housing? The amenity effect in China's urban housing markets

Menglan Liu
, Jian-gang Shi
, Jianfu Shen
, Eddie Chi Man Hui^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Public and International Affairs

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of urban amenities on migrant housing choices. It firstly constructs a novel urban amenity level (UAL) index spanning multiple amenity categories across 286 Chinese cities. Using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2011–2018 merged with municipal statistics, empirical results reveal that a destination city's UAL exerts a significantly positive effect on migrants' housing payments. A one standard deviation increase in UAL contributes to a 0.413 standard deviation rise in housing costs, indicating migrants' willingness to pay for urban amenities. Further analysis uncovers three fundamental mechanisms: the expectation effect, the accessibility effect, and the social integration effect. Migrants' stronger settlement intention and social integration amplify the amenity impact on their housing payments, whereas a high entry threshold to the local housing market increases migrants' housing affordability stress. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the amenity effect varies by amenity type, hukou status, region, and human capital. The findings offer policy implications, including enhancing amenities to upgrade dwelling conditions, mitigating housing access barriers, and focusing more on vulnerable migrant workers and regional disparity. This study provides a new perspective on migrants' housing choices and the effects of gaps in urban amenity intensity on housing behavior. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd.

Original language	English
Article number	102224
Journal	Socio-Economic Planning Sciences
Volume	100
Online published	17 Apr 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2025.102224
Publication status	Published - Aug 2025

Funding

This study is supported by the research grants (P0044347 and P0039236) from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The authors sincerely thank the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) research team and all respondents for their contributions. The authors deeply thank the handing editors and anonymous reviewers, whose insightful comments and helpful suggestions significantly contributed to improving this paper.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities
SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

Research Keywords

Housing payment
Internal migrants
Settlement intention
Social integration
Urban amenity

Publisher's Copyright Statement

COPYRIGHT TERMS OF DEPOSITED POSTPRINT FILE: © 2025 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

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title = "Are migrants willing to pay more for better housing? The amenity effect in China's urban housing markets",

abstract = "This study investigates the influence of urban amenities on migrant housing choices. It firstly constructs a novel urban amenity level (UAL) index spanning multiple amenity categories across 286 Chinese cities. Using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2011–2018 merged with municipal statistics, empirical results reveal that a destination city's UAL exerts a significantly positive effect on migrants' housing payments. A one standard deviation increase in UAL contributes to a 0.413 standard deviation rise in housing costs, indicating migrants' willingness to pay for urban amenities. Further analysis uncovers three fundamental mechanisms: the expectation effect, the accessibility effect, and the social integration effect. Migrants' stronger settlement intention and social integration amplify the amenity impact on their housing payments, whereas a high entry threshold to the local housing market increases migrants' housing affordability stress. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the amenity effect varies by amenity type, hukou status, region, and human capital. The findings offer policy implications, including enhancing amenities to upgrade dwelling conditions, mitigating housing access barriers, and focusing more on vulnerable migrant workers and regional disparity. This study provides a new perspective on migrants' housing choices and the effects of gaps in urban amenity intensity on housing behavior. {\textcopyright} 2025 Elsevier Ltd.",

keywords = "Housing payment, Internal migrants, Settlement intention, Social integration, Urban amenity",

author = "Menglan Liu and Jian-gang Shi and Jianfu Shen and Hui, \{Eddie Chi Man\}",

year = "2025",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1016/j.seps.2025.102224",

language = "English",

volume = "100",

journal = "Socio-Economic Planning Sciences",

issn = "0038-0121",

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T1 - Are migrants willing to pay more for better housing? The amenity effect in China's urban housing markets

AU - Liu, Menglan

AU - Shi, Jian-gang

AU - Shen, Jianfu

AU - Hui, Eddie Chi Man

PY - 2025/8

Y1 - 2025/8

N2 - This study investigates the influence of urban amenities on migrant housing choices. It firstly constructs a novel urban amenity level (UAL) index spanning multiple amenity categories across 286 Chinese cities. Using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2011–2018 merged with municipal statistics, empirical results reveal that a destination city's UAL exerts a significantly positive effect on migrants' housing payments. A one standard deviation increase in UAL contributes to a 0.413 standard deviation rise in housing costs, indicating migrants' willingness to pay for urban amenities. Further analysis uncovers three fundamental mechanisms: the expectation effect, the accessibility effect, and the social integration effect. Migrants' stronger settlement intention and social integration amplify the amenity impact on their housing payments, whereas a high entry threshold to the local housing market increases migrants' housing affordability stress. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the amenity effect varies by amenity type, hukou status, region, and human capital. The findings offer policy implications, including enhancing amenities to upgrade dwelling conditions, mitigating housing access barriers, and focusing more on vulnerable migrant workers and regional disparity. This study provides a new perspective on migrants' housing choices and the effects of gaps in urban amenity intensity on housing behavior. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd.

AB - This study investigates the influence of urban amenities on migrant housing choices. It firstly constructs a novel urban amenity level (UAL) index spanning multiple amenity categories across 286 Chinese cities. Using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2011–2018 merged with municipal statistics, empirical results reveal that a destination city's UAL exerts a significantly positive effect on migrants' housing payments. A one standard deviation increase in UAL contributes to a 0.413 standard deviation rise in housing costs, indicating migrants' willingness to pay for urban amenities. Further analysis uncovers three fundamental mechanisms: the expectation effect, the accessibility effect, and the social integration effect. Migrants' stronger settlement intention and social integration amplify the amenity impact on their housing payments, whereas a high entry threshold to the local housing market increases migrants' housing affordability stress. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the amenity effect varies by amenity type, hukou status, region, and human capital. The findings offer policy implications, including enhancing amenities to upgrade dwelling conditions, mitigating housing access barriers, and focusing more on vulnerable migrant workers and regional disparity. This study provides a new perspective on migrants' housing choices and the effects of gaps in urban amenity intensity on housing behavior. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd.

KW - Housing payment

KW - Internal migrants

KW - Settlement intention

KW - Social integration

KW - Urban amenity

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DO - 10.1016/j.seps.2025.102224

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 0038-0121

VL - 100

JO - Socio-Economic Planning Sciences

JF - Socio-Economic Planning Sciences

M1 - 102224

ER -

Are migrants willing to pay more for better housing? The amenity effect in China's urban housing markets

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

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