ABSTRACT
The emergence of a relatively autonomous 'property sector' manages the development process and the production of physical infrastructure, and based on specialized property development and investment companies. This chapter focuses on the changing scale and nature of financial institutions' investment in property in Britain. Commercial and industrial property is normally produced as a commodity; it is a vehicle for the production of surplus value and capital accumulation. Property is normally produced in the course of a circuit of industrial capital. The dominant investors in commercial and industrial property are the insurance companies and pension funds; property unit trusts, property bonds and various charities account for a smaller though significant share. The chapter presents a number of the economic and political implications of these structural changes in the property sector and in its relations to the wider economy.
