Planning Policy and Retail Property Investment in the UK

Abstract

Empirical evidence suggests that planning policies significantly impact on investment property market performance in the UK. It is less clear, however, how information about the planning policy environment feeds into investment decision-making. This paper seeks to explore this issue. It reports on interviews with the property investment community and focuses on the decision to invest in the retail sector. The paper uses a six-stage model of the investment decision-making process as a framework for analysing the way in which concerns about policy impact on behaviour. The results suggest that an understanding of the policy environment and the development of a relationship with local planning authorities are most important in the post-acquisition asset management stage of the investment process. The research also reveals variations in access to policy intelligence and that approaches to analysis of the likely effects of planning regimes vary with fund type and strategy.

Death of the high street: identification, prevention, reinvention

“…Significantly, the town centre first planning policy has applied to leisure, offices and cultural and tourism uses as well as retail, leading to mixed-use regeneration schemes such as West Quay in Southampton and Broadmead in Bristol. The role of individual planning authorities has also been noted in two respects; first, with proactive authorities reflected in market signals that trigger development and, second, that good developer relations with those authorities can be important to successful development (Jackson & Watkins, 2011). Notably, successful schemes initially tended to be heavily concentrated in the major towns and cities (CB Hillier Parker, 2001), already thriving centres with healthy levels of consumer demand, a pattern entrenched in the financial and economic crisis of the late 2000s onwards, further reinforcing the polarization seen above.…”

Methodological approaches to investment property valuation

“…Global trends in the investment property markets were studied by a number of the leading scientific professionals, who in particular were dealing with: risk assessment impact on the real estate value management (Baum & Hartzell, 2012;Ball, Lizieri, & MacGregor, 2012), role of the governmental autthorities in the investment property valuation process (T. Boyd & S. Boyd, 2012;Jackson & Watkins, 2011), taxation system and its influence on the commercial property valuation (Liapis, Kantianis, & Galanos, 2014).…”

Competing Notions of Search for Home: Behavioural Economics and Housing Markets

“…Smith et al, 2006, Wallace, 2008 and conceptualises housing decisions as being socially constructed within a wider market context (Leggett, 2014). Jackson and Watkins (2011) argue that new behavioural economics does not offer an alternative to rational choice, whilst old behavioural economics supports 'procedural' rationality, in which satisficing behaviour reflects embedded relationships and habits impact upon beliefs and attitudes. New behavioural economics is currently the dominant form of behavioural economics and insights frequently migrate between neoclassical economics and new behavioural economics.…”