At the heart of many of the property-related problems in the three counties is the pressure on resources.
Time and again we see the familiar arguments. Too much employment land is going for residential property, not to mention the conversion of office buildings for a similar end use.
The local population in many areas are protesting about this because their services, such as schools and medical centres, are being stretched and their roads increasingly congested.
While it is important to build more houses, this should not be at the expense of commercial development to achieve an expanding economy.
Also, it is arguable that too much housing is being built in the south east.
The result is that office and industrial rents are rising and in many areas the shortage of land for industrial development is acute. On the other hand, the growing investment by local authorities in commercial land and buildings to counter government funding cuts may push them in the direction of putting commercial development higher up the scale of priorities.
What is needed is a more balanced approach. For example, building an IKEA and 600 new houses in an area of acute traffic congestion seems daft. Get the infrastructure right first and then build the big store.