Optimal Tenant Choice by Pricing for Affordable Rental Housing With Dual-Queue

The significant expansion of affordable housing supply in recent years, aimed at alleviating housing difficulties in major cities, has underscored the critical importance of pricing strategies. Focusing on the pricing of affordable rental housing in Beijing, this paper proposes a pricing strategy aimed at maximizing housing unit utilization. Within a dual-queue model and considering the characteristics of tenant choice behavior, commuting distance and rental price are identified as highly sensitive factors. A linear response mechanism is employed to quantify tenants’ cost-benefit trade-off across housing options in different locations. Research based on classical queuing theory and empirical data shows that significant reductions in applicant loss rates are achievable. The monetization of commuting costs offers an actionable policy tool for urban planning, and the optimal pricing threshold can effectively adapt to changes in housing inventory levels and applicant arrival rates ( λ ). This demonstrates the robustness of the pricing strategy across different supply-demand scenarios. This study provides practical value and a decision-making basis for addressing the supply-demand imbalance in multi-location public housing.