ABSTRACT
By 1965 the conditions were in place for the break-up and sale of blocks of flats to begin. The building of flats for rent had been replaced by building flats for sale, the necessary mortgage finance for purchasers was becoming more readily available, the commercial property sector was booming and changes in economic and financial conditions, particularly those brought about by the 1965 Finance Act, had made the holding of residential investment property increasingly unprofitable. As the Trafalgar House report makes clear, the gap between the tenanted investment value of flat property and its value to owner occupiers was becoming only too apparent as were the incentives for disinvestment. By the mid 1960s most of the conditions favourable to development of flat breaking had emerged. But as with most emergent market situations, the development of the market took some time to become established as a major feature of the central London residential scene.
