When Peter Ambrose and I wrote a book called The property machine back in 1975 looking at developers in the UK and their impact on local communities, national housebuilding companies were a little- known part of the property industry, and even less of the investment market (Ambrose and Colenutt, 1975). In those days, the big developers, backed with institutional finance (pension funds and insurance companies), were office developers such as Land Securities, Hammerson and British Land. The commercial property market (or commercial real estate as it is now called) has since then hugely expanded and diversified into retail, leisure and, more recently, residential development.

As private housebuilding for sale has become increasingly important to the government and consumers, the major housebuilding developers have become more corporate and closely integrated with the finance sector. They are now ‘volume builders’ who have absorbed dozens of smaller builders and their land banks. They are listed on the stock exchange and play an important part in the fortunes of the investment market.

Fred Wellings, the pre- eminent chronicler of the housebuilders, describes an industry of individual builder entrepreneurs until the 1970s. It evolved through a process of consolidation and takeover, ‘driven by financial opportunism, the influence of the Stock Exchange and personal motivation’ (Wellings, 2006: 3). Over a fairly short period of time, the major housebuilders were able to capture a large part of the market. In 2018, the top ten builders built 30 per cent of all new homes in the UK, and these companies are getting bigger and bigger and more powerful in the market. Those building over 2,000 homes per year built 63 per cent of new homes in 2017 (Savills, 2018). The top ten UK housebuilders are: Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Bellway, Persimmon, Berkeley, Galliford Try, Redrow, Crest Nicholson, Bovis and Countryside (Housebuilder, 2018).

Table 1, comparing the top ten housebuilders in 2000 with the top ten housebuilders in 2016, tells a story of major names being absorbed into other companies. Several major household names such as McAlpine and David Wilson have disappeared, being taken over or merged with others, notably, Barratt, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey. Meanwhile, the number of units built by the largest companies has risen significantly over the 15- year period.