The Property Specialisation Cycle: From Trough to Peak in Two and a Half Centuries

Since the eighteenth century there has been a long-run trend towards growing functional and geographical specialisation of commercial and industrial buildings within particular urban centres. This trend reached a peak in around 1960 and the last four decades have witnessed a move away from specialisation. The development of business and retail parks have blurred both the functional and geographical divisions between building types while more recently the advent of 'teleworking' and internet commerce appears to have the potential to return a substantial proportion of commercial activity back to the domestic environment.