Acquiring shopping area by hospital, joins property owners (12)

'property owners' is the definition.
(people owning small agricultural estates)

'acquiring shopping area by hospital joins' is the wordplay.
'acquiring' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'shopping area' becomes 'mall' (shopping mall).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'hospital' becomes 'h' (abbreviation for hospital on maps).
'joins' becomes 'solders' (soldering is a kind of joining).
'mall'+'h'='mallh'
'mallh' inserted inside 'solders' is 'SMALLHOLDERS'.