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Hedonic price effects of homeworking under the COVID-19: evidence from housing markets in Guangzhou, China

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted homeworking to become a ‘new normal’. Consequently, the effects of various homeworking-related housing attributes on housing prices may be changed. However, few studies have explicitly examined if and how the practice of homeworking changes the associations between these particular housing attributes and housing prices. In light of this, based on a database of 2-year property transaction records in Guangzhou, China, this study develops several multilevel hedonic price models and multilevel difference-in-differences (DID) hedonic price models to delve into the COVID-19-induced variations in such housing attributes-housing prices associations. Our findings are as follows. (1) The practice of homeworking seems not to have fundamentally changed the effects of homeworking-related housing attributes on housing prices (suggested by the unchanged coefficient directions between pre- and post-COVID models); (2) Significant differences do exist in magnitudes of the effects of homeworking-related housing attributes on housing prices between pre- and post-COVID periods; (3) Those attributes (associated with homeworking space, convenient commute between workplace and home, and necessary needs of daily shop** and services) that facilitate homeworking tend to have higher price premiums and/or lower price discounts. This study provides novel evidence on hedonic price effects of homeworking in housing markets and their variations from pre-COVID to Post-COVID periods, which enriches the recently heated debates on property market responses to COVID-19.

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Notes

  1. In previous research, terms such as homeworking, working from home, and home-based e-working are often used interchangeably. All these terms are used to describe an employee conducting working tasks at home (Loo & Wang, 2018).

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42271210, 42122007, 41930646 and 42301212) and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (2022A1515011572).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Bo Wang, **n Feng, Desheng Xue & Siyao Tong

  2. Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Becky P. Y. Loo

  3. School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China

    Becky P. Y. Loo & Jixiang Liu

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 5 and 6.

Table 5 Robustness check results of multiple hedonic pricing models (dependent variable = the natural logarithm of the total transaction price)
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Table 6 Robustness check results of DID models (Dependent variable = the natural logarithm of the total transaction price)
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Wang, B., Feng, X., Loo, B.P.Y. et al. Hedonic price effects of homeworking under the COVID-19: evidence from housing markets in Guangzhou, China. J Hous and the Built Environ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-023-10102-5

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