Land price dynamics in response to high-speed rail network characteristics: An empirical analysis

High-speed railway (HSR) has become the backbone of China's rapid and comprehensive urban transportation network system. However, the impact of the network characteristics of HSR on urban land prices has not been studied in sufficient detail. To fill this gap, this study focuses on both the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration and explores the linkage relationship between the HSR network and urban land prices. For this analysis, social network analysis and fixed effects model are used. The results show that the overall HSR network density of these two urban agglomerations still has room for improvement. Affected by regional proximity and the direction of HSR lines, HSR presents a spatial pattern of a multi-center–multi-tier network. The “siphon effect” is the main effect of the HSR network characteristics on land prices. However, the weakening degree of spatial spillover effect on siphon effect of the HSR network in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration is stronger than that in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration. Local governments should fully utilize the spatial effects of HSR and enhance the level of coordinated development among urban agglomerations.