Spatial correlation and influencing factors of the urban land transaction market in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration

PurposeLand transactions are a key indicator of urban sustainable development and urban space expansion. Therefore, this paper aims to study the spatial correlation of different types of land transactions.Design/methodology/approachBased on the big data of land micro transactions in Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, this paper uses the generalized forecast error variance decomposition (GFEVD) method to measure the correlation level of urban land markets. Also, social network analysis (SNA) is used to describe spatial correlation network characteristics of an urban agglomeration land market. In the meantime, the factors that influence the spatial correlation of urban land markets are investigated through a quadratic assignment procedure (QAP).FindingsThe price growth rate of urban residential land was higher than that of industrial land and commercial land. The spatial relevance of urban residential land is the highest, while the spatial relevance of the urban commercial land market is the lowest. The urban industrial land market, commercial land market and residential land market all present a typical network structure. Population distance (POD) and Engel coefficient distance (EGD) are negatively correlated with the correlation degree of the urban residential land network; traffic distance (TRD) and economic distance (ECD) are negatively correlated with the correlation degree of the urban industrial land network and commercial land network.Originality/valueThis paper uses a systematically-integrated series of problem-solving models to better explain the development path of urban land markets and to realize the integration of the interdisciplinary methods of geography, statistics and big data analysis.