ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the intersection between planning and commercial real estate in the UK, and how it has evolved, adapted and responded to globalisation and consequent regulatory and industry changes after the global financial crisis. We consider the implications of the broader changes that have taken place in London, in particular the influence of dynamic capital flows and ‘financialisation’. The rapidly changing investment and development context in London over the last decade has wide-ranging implications for planning practice, which seeks to balance sustainable social and economic real estate impacts, and successfully ‘add value’. The chapter reflects on how global drivers of change in the planning and real estate markets find expression in London, drawing on interviews with professionals in commercial real estate and planning.