**6. Conclusions**

With the increasing role of law in governance [75], there is a growing emphasis on law-based governance worldwide, and China expects to build itself into a socialist country with Chinese characteristics under the rule of law. In conventional terms, the rule of law necessarily has a positive correlation with the economic growth and the overall economic prosperity of any country [76]. For example, law-based environmental governance boosts employment [77]. Therefore, the pursuit of law-based governance is closely related to economic development, including the real estate market [53]. Although some studies have noted that a certain law can have a significant impact on housing prices [54], and the revised "Japanese Tenant Protection Law" affects housing rent [78], there is still limited knowledge about how the rule of law and housing prices are related across cities in a given country. In the current context of China's efforts to raise the quality of the law aspect of governance, a lack of awareness of such liaising mechanisms may not contribute maximally to economic development and may lead to less efficient regulation of possible rapid increases in housing prices. Our study bridges this cognitive gap by analyzing the ways in which the law aspect of governance is associated with housing prices, and the focus is the roles played by the factors of public satisfaction and socioeconomic groups.

This study finds that improving the quality of the law aspect of governance can enlarge loans, attract foreign investment, and then significantly raise housing prices. However, the relationship between the rule of law and housing prices is sensitive to public satisfaction. Additionally, considering the geographic and socioeconomic factors, the present paper shows that the correlation between the law aspect of governance and housing prices is greater in the first- and second-tier cities. These findings provide new insights into the pursuit of the rule of law with high quality in contemporary China.

In fact, China has made various efforts to raise the quality of the law aspect of governance in order to establish a socialist state under the rule of law. This pursuit in practice necessarily contributes to economic prosperity. Nevertheless, housing prices may increase additionally in the pursuit, which is an unwanted and concerning outcome for the government. Inspired by our findings, local governments could promulgate measures to reduce financial loans and foreign investment to curb the possible rapid rise in housing prices when improving the law aspect of governance quality, especially for emerging economies in the world.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, H.Z.; methodology, H.Z.; software, H.Z.; validation, J.C. and H.Z.; formal analysis, H.Z.; investigation, H.Z.; resources, H.Z.; data curation, H.Z. and Q.Z.; writing—original draft preparation, H.Z.; writing—review and editing, J.C.; visualization, H.Z.; supervision, J.C.; project administration, J.C.; funding acquisition, J.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China, gran<sup>t</sup> number NSFC71974125, NSF71661137004, NSF71573166; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, gran<sup>t</sup> number 2019M651511, Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Anhui, gran<sup>t</sup> number 2008085MG237; and Scientific Research Foundation of Chuzhou University, gran<sup>t</sup> number 2018qd12. The APC was funded by the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Anhui.

**Data Availability Statement:** Data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
