Economics, Real Estate and the Supply of Land

Evans, Alan W.

Real Estate Issues

1. Edition May 2004
276 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd

ISBN: 978-1-4051-1862-0

John Wiley & Sons

Wiley Online Library

Further versions

The book draws together the economic literature relating to the
supply of land for development. The standard view appears to be
that the owners of land have no interest other than to allow their
land to be used for the activity which would yield the highest
income. But in reality this is not so and the book's aim is to
demonstrate this, to set out the reasons and to show the economic
effects of the fact that landowners have other motives.

The book covers the supply of land for urban development and
shows how land has characteristics which differentiate it from
other factors of production which will also affect its supply for
some uses, e.g. land is fixed in location and its price and value
are inseparable from where it is.

New light is cast on the market for land (by concentrating on
the supply side), and on land use planning (by taking an economic
viewpoint).

Introduction: The Market for Land and Property; Land Values, Rents and Demand; Coping with Changes in Demand; How Efficient is the Property Market?; Market Inefficiency: Causes and Consequences; The Supply of Land for a Particular Use: Speculation and Uncertainty; The Supply of Land for a Particular Use: Occupier Performances and Residential; The Ownership of Land and change in its use; Land Ownership, Politics and Society; Ownership and Control: Monopoly; Ownership and Control: Minimum Rents; Information, Uncertainty and the Property Market; Land Availability and Land Banking; Contiguity: Site Assembly; Contiguity: Compulsory Purchase and the Scale of Development; Contiguity: Land Reallocation and the Price of Land; The Taxation of Land and Development Gains; Annual Taxation and the Nationalisation of Land; Conclusion: Themes and changes in perception

Excellent in the way it brings together in a coherent whole,
various approaches to the analysis of the supply of land for
development. The issues covered are pertinent for both
practitioners and academics in providing a useful theoretical
framework based on sound economics. The book is well written and
enjoyable to read.

Journal of Property Investment and Finance, September
2005.

'This is an ambitious and important contribution to the
literature on the economic theory of land markets. I see this book
as an outstanding contribution to urban economics.' Land
Economics

Alan Evans, Professor of Environmental Economics, Centre for Spatial and Real Estate Economics, School of Business, University of Reading

A. Evans, University of Reading