Ownership diversity and fragmentation: a barrier to urban centre resilience

Orr, A. M. , Stewart, J. L. , Jackson, C. C. and White, J. T. (2023) Ownership diversity and fragmentation: a barrier to urban centre resilience. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 50(3), pp. 660-677. (doi: 10.1177/23998083221124600)

Abstract

Fragmentation of ownership has long been a recognised constraint to UK city centre development, a complexity that is growing in significance as centres try to manage the decline in physical retailing and transform obsolete retail units. Yet, our understanding of the structure of ownership and how that might be facilitating or inhibiting urban change remains weak. In this paper, the objective is to address this gap by examining the structure and diversity of land ownership in five retailing centres - Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Liverpool, and Nottingham – between 2000–2017 using original databases created by linking administrative and commercial property data sets. Overall, the analysis finds property ownership to be spatially complex with ownership richness and diversity generally rising over the study period. The study also reveals that ownership structure has been shifting away from financial institutions towards overseas investors, private individuals and unlisted property companies, implying greater fragmentation of ownership. While the greater diversity in ownership should stimulate competition and innovation in property market practices, the shift in balance from equity-rich larger investors towards smaller and sometimes unknown investors makes urban centre management harder to manage. This suggests policymakers need to rethink the urban governance model to find a better way to galvanise the actions of this increasing disparate group of stakeholders if their visions of more resilient, mixed use city centres are to be realised.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: White, Professor James and Stewart, Dr Joanna and Orr, Dr Allison
• Authors: Orr, A. M., Stewart, J. L., Jackson, C. C., and White, J. T.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 2399-8083
• ISSN (Online): 2399-8091
• Published Online: 05 September 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 50(3): 660-677
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
300058		Real Estates Adaptation and Innovation within an Integrated Retailing System	Allison Orr	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)	ES/R005117/1	S&PS - Urban Studies