Cultural explanation of regional property markets: A critique

In a recent paper in this journal, Simon Guy and John Henneberry (2000) proposed an institutional approach to property markets that emphasises exceptional behaviour on the part of particular market agents. Using this cultural approach, they claimed to have evidence that London-based property investors deliberately underinvest in British property outside southern England. This paper criticises their dismissal of pre-existing economic and institutional property market analysis and questions the validity of their empirical conclusions.