The Risk Business: Developers' Perceptions and Prospects for Housebuilding in the Inner City

Abstract

This article describes and discusses the principal results from a study of residential developers and their role in the housing development process in Nottingham. The research identified land availability as the critical factor inhibiting private housebuilding in the inner area of Nottingham and cast doubts on certain conventional assumptions about the prospects for private residential development in inner cities. The characteristics and perceptions of developers with and without experience of inner city development are compared, and developers' reactions to a series of specific development sites are analysed in relation to both site and developer characteristics.