ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the factors which contributed to this transition, the ways in which barriers to an active market in commercial property were and the reasons behind the lack of significant direct investment in commercial property by the financial institutions prior to the First World War. The nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of a commercial property investment market in Great Britain, replacing the previous system of 'estate management' by aristocratic and other 'traditional' landlords, whose property acquisition and development strategies were strongly influenced by social and political, as well as monetary, considerations. The development of a property press provided a vital source of market intelligence for an investment medium characterized by the lack of a centralized market, an extremely heterogeneous product, and the absence of any clear indicator of prevailing market conditions. The property taxation measures of the 1906 Liberal government presented a much more serious threat to insurance company property holdings.
