Demand for Housing

The construction of housing enables a benefit to be available for direct consumption. In a minority of cases, the client of the industry is the user, as in privately commissioned housing. Most housing, however, is either produced by a private developer in advance of orders by users or by a public, quasi-public or private organisation for renting (or sale) to users. The private developer is known as a speculative builder — speculative in the sense that there is uncertainty as to whether the dwelling will be sold. In this sense at least a large part of the output of manufacturing industry is speculative. The manufacturer of toothbrushes does not know his clients when he produces the brushes. However, the sheer size of the purchase of a house and the fact that it is a postponable capital transaction renders speculative housing a more uncertain business than the manufacture of toothbrushes.