ABSTRACT
Landowners potentially play a crucial role in the real estate development process. They can frustrate or facilitate the supply of what is often the most problematic of development inputs – land itself. They have considerable power to shape places by the extent and speed of land release and by any conditions they attach to land transfers. That power is at its most intense where pressures for urbanisation, or for the densification of existing urban areas, ensure that the demand for development land significantly outstrips its supply. Yet, as Goodchild and Munton (1985: 9) maintain: ‘the motives and circumstances of landowners are extremely varied and as a consequence owners do not respond uniformly to the development opportunities open to them’. Some turn themselves into developers, or at least respond enthusiastically to the opportunities developers present to them. Others are more reticent to engage with developers, or even with other landowners, where parcels in different ownerships require amalgamation or co-ordination prior to development.
