The 1980s Property Boom

Abstract

In this paper the causes and consequences of the property boom of the late 1980s are considered that in one way or another affected most developed economies and several industrialising ones. It is suggested that technical change in key service industries caused an upsurge in building demand from the mid-1970s onwards. Shifts in employment patterns then generated repercussions in housing markets. The classic conditions were created for a ‘Kuznets style’ building cycle. The detailed effects of these changes in specific countries depended on the responses by agents involved in the process of building provision, which in turn were affected by the changing economic and institutional contexts that they faced. Property development, financial liberation, housing markets, property taxation, and land-use planning are all considered in this context, with examples drawn from several countries.