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This paper demonstrates the contribution that historical property records can make to our understanding of long run urban change. We use a case study of two streets from the suburb of Carlton in Melbourne, Australia between 1870 and 1970. The property records form a panel database that can be interrogated using standard modelling techniques. These data are used to analyse change in the built environment over time, and identify the factors that may be influencing such change. With the assembled data we track built form, land value, ownership and land use over 100 years. We find that stability characterises the built environment over lengthy periods, but when change occurs it does so in bursts, rather than incrementally. Furthermore, these bursts of change are unevenly spread across our two case study streets, despite their proximity. The streetscape’s primary built material is the key factor shaping geographical patterns of land use change in the case study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role that property titling legislation has had on the form of high-density residential development. A conceptual framework is developed for theorising the role of property legislation in moderating the impact of urban land use policy. It is argued that the impact of legislation on urban form is much more significant and direct than is often implied or suggested in reviews of planning policy. It is argued that property legislation has a greater role than simply supporting the implementation of urban planning policy. Property legislation has a moderating influence on policy and provides a barrier to the implementation of urban policy. To support this argument, the paper considers the development and implications of Western Australia’s strata titling legislation for the form of high-density development in that state’s capital city. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]