ABSTRACT
The production of the built environment has been a major focus of urban research. This chapter focuses on the production of housing, a major element of the built environment. It also focuses on the speculative production of housing for owner-occupation which since 1955 has comprised each year between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of annual output by value of the construction industry in the UK. In recent years the housebuilders, and particularly the volume builders, have also been concerned with selling individual dwellings as part of a residential area. Most housebuilders use estate agents for nearly all their sales and it is really only the large companies which organize themselves in such a way as to incorporate the sale of houses into their own activities. Housebuilders get some feedback about their product but only one major housebuilder is known to undertake a systematic survey of all their consumers’ views of their new purchase.
