ABSTRACT
Some places change gradually over many years, while others experience rapid
transformation in a short space of time. Whether the pace of change is slow and
almost unnoticed, or rapid and highly disruptive, a production process is at work to
shape and reshape the built environment. This form of production is known as the
real estate development process. There are many similarities between real estate
development and other production processes, such as car assembly. As with other
production processes, real estate development requires complex organisational
systems to bring together the necessary inputs at the correct time so as to create
a desirable finished product. Alongside capital and labour, however, real estate
development consumes extensive quantities of another factor of production –
land – which makes it distinctive from most other forms of production. Indeed, the
potential of real estate development to transform place is crucially dependent on
its capacity to source land from real estate markets and combine it successfully
with capital, labour and raw materials sourced from other input markets.
