THE INTEGRATION OF PROPERTY AND FINANCIAL-MARKETS

In this paper, the nature of property and the growing links between pr operty and financial markets are addressed. It is argued that property must be viewed as a commodity with use-value and exchange-value aspec ts. Property has been affected by two developments in the 1980s: the s hift to services (especially financial services) and waves of deregula tion. The increase in demand during the 1980s boom stemmed both from i nvestors such as property companies and from end users, especially tho se engaged in or expanding into securities business following Big Bang . As property markets, including the housing retail finance circuit, b ecame increasingly intertwined with wholesale financial markets they b ecame more susceptible to the vicissitudes of these markets and tenden cies toward crisis. The exchange value of property became disengaged f rom its use value as property took on the attributes of a quasi-financ ial asset.