William Alonso’s 1964 explanation of urban land use and land values is grounded on the concept of bid rents. If the level of goods and services is constant, land prices should decrease with distance from the centre. The poor will live near the city centre, where high housing densities more than offset high land costs; the better-off will live at lower densities at the edge of the city (on more, but cheaper, land). Each household represents a balance between land, goods, and accessibility to the workplace. However, commuting costs rise with distance from the centre, reducing disposable income, and higher-income groups may prefer the accessibility to the CBD offered by the inner city to the space, quiet, and cheaper land of the suburbs, thus causing gentrification. Hua (2001) Int. Reg. Sci. Rev. 24, 3 reviews and re-presents Alonso’s model.