ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a discussion of the main long-run factors influencing returns to investment in property, together with an econometric analysis of the principal long-term determinants of rates of return and levels of investment in the sector. It looks at factors contributing to the early growth of the property market, the operation of the property investment market in the noninflationary world of the 1930s and the causes of the instability which has characterized the history of the commercial property sector. The commercial property sector is vital importance to the British economy. Property also offers opportunities for gearing which have allowed companies in property-rich sectors, such as retailing, to expand more rapidly than would have been possible with other forms of finance.
