The growing global movement to restrain house prices

FLANNERY ASSOCIATES did not even have a website until the end of August. But a lawsuit involving the firm, first filed in a federal court in May, has uncovered the huge extent of its land holdings in Solano County, which lies around 60 miles (97km) north-east of San Francisco in California. The suit revealed that Flannery had committed to buying 140 properties for a total of more than $800m and was paying well over the market odds: as much as $15,000 per acre, for land valued to tax authorities for as little as a tenth of that. The entire scheme spans 50,000 acres, an area far larger than that of San Francisco proper.