Real estate has always been shaped by the way we move around the world.
The post-war rise of the car led to the boom of the suburbs and of out-of-town shopping malls. South London is built on tough-to-tunnel-through sandy soil rather than North London's clay, meaning it has fewer underground lines, and so is less densely populated (and poorer). The world’s great cities are built on coasts and rivers because of the access by boat that provides.