ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the nature of the sectors of the property market. It describes aspects of the principal sectors of the property market, eg agriculture, forestry and retail. The chapter discusses the property market’s sectors and somewhat arbitrarily describes them in terms of general subdivisions. For statutory purposes agriculture covers diverse properties from farming estates to some kinds of allotment. Traditionally, a farm is owner occupied or held on a lease or an annual tenancy with succession to the farmer’s family. For many years the Forestry Commission was the principal landowner and producer of timber on behalf of the government who saw forests as part of the national defence strategy. The decline of parts of the agricultural sector and the increasing awareness of the environment has seen a shift of government policy. A new form of tenure was established under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 called the farm business tenancy. It copes with the increasingly common diversification in agriculture.
