ABSTRACT
The competition between capitals in their search for maximum profit brings about flows of value and of capital among the various branches of production and tends to create an average rate of profit. The aim is an examination of the formation and the distribution of profits at the heart of the system of private housing development and the long-term changes in this distribution. The data are, on the one hand, for the prices of dwellings sold by the developers; on the other hand for the structure of the developers' costs. Variations between locations in the economics of development lead to the appropriation of surplus profits in the form of differential rents. In various direct and indirect ways residential development was subordinated to the banks. As a result of the pre-emptive drain of surplus in favour of the financial sector, the rate of profit in development fell and, in turn, transfers of surplus to landed property were stabilised.
