As urban societies face accelerated aging and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of medical infrastructure in shaping residential environments has become increasingly salient. However, medical facilities may generate negative externalities, such as traffic congestion and noise, complicating assumptions about their uniformly positive effects on housing values. This study examines the nonlinear relationship between healthcare accessibility and apartment prices through a combination of hedonic pricing models and machine-learning techniques. The results indicate that healthcare accessibility significantly influences apartment values, often surpassing conventional premium factors such as park proximity, brand reputation, and school access in relative importance. Notably, partial dependence plot (PDP) analysis identifies nonlinear inflection points and critical distance thresholds across different types of medical facilities, including public healthcare facilities (500 meters), clinics (100 meters), and general hospitals (750 meters). Physical apartment attributes, including floor area, building age, and number of units, remain critical determinants of housing prices. By systematically integrating these factors, this study highlights the need to strategically consider healthcare infrastructure within urban planning and housing policy frameworks.
Do et al. (Wed,) studied this question.