ABSTRACT
This chapter reports the results of research carried out in Manchester and considers whether established valuation practices operate to prevent inner city land prices from falling, even in areas of apparent oversupply, thereby creating a specific blockage within the development process which delays the re-use of vacant inner city land. In particular the effects of public sector land acquisition are assessed. The City of Manchester exhibits many of the classic symptoms of inner city decay. This chapter tabulates the present ownership (as at February 1984) of the 50 case study sites. The present ownership of developed sites reflects their acquisition by 'development agents' during the study period. It shows the distribution of transactions between vendors and purchasers. It can be seen that the City Council is the most important vendor of sites for development, while companies are the dominant vendor of sites still vacant.
