The Impacts Of The 2008 Olympic Games On Beijing'S Urban Structure And Residential Property Market

The impact of the Olympic Games on the hosting cities has been the topic of a rich body of literature with mixed findings. The research topic is a challenging undertaking due to the scale of the event itself and the complexity of the preparation for the event. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is no exception. After winning the bid for the Olympic Games in 2001, Beijing city invested more than 40 billion US dollars in infrastructure, of which 26 billion US dollars were contributed to transportation and the rest were devoted to urban environment, energy infrastructure and water resources. The unprecedented scale of investment, citizen involvement, and government support resulted in one of the most successful Olympic Games in its history and a tremendous boost of national moral in China. The event also changed many aspects of Beijing residents' life by improving transportation accessibility, amenity and air quality, among others. This study aims to investigate these impacts by focusing on the residential property market in Beijing and to provide policy recommendations to improve housing supply. This study investigates the development of Beijing private housing market and movement of urban structure by employing a hedonic pricing framework. We quantify the extent to which the distance to nearest transport network (subway station) and urban sub-centers have been capitalized into the property price. The data adopted for the hedonic model are 3,260 residential property transactions from 1998 to 2008. This selection of sampling period allows us to verify if house price determinants have the same effect on property prices before and after the major constructions of infrastructure and sport facilities for the Olympic Games. The empirical evidences show that Beijing Olympic Games changed the marginal prices of housing attributes. Home buyers put greater values on transportation accessibility, quality environment and low living density after the infrastructure improvement was completed. It is also true that the area with least provision of infrastructure and amenity are likely to have benefited more from the Olympic Games than other well-developed regions. Meanwhile the Beijing urban structure has undergone a transformation from a bicentric form with the two centres being the CBD and Financial Street to a polycentric city with a new, burgeoning center at the Olympic Site. This area continues to attract great attentions after the Olympic Games and contributes significantly to local residents' cultural, social, and economic life.