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Urban Land Policy in Five Western Countries*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Max Neutze
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Abstract

Western governments often attempt to regulate the use of privately owned urban land, while still relying on private landowners and developers to initiate development. This requires restrictions on the ways owners can develop their land, which restricts supply and increases land prices. The incentive of landowners to maximize the value of their land leads them to resist any restrictions on their right to develop.

Different countries have responded to these difficulties in achieving land use policy objectives in different ways. In the United States, and to a lesser degree Australia, the private market largely determines the way cities grow and land use planning has only a minor influence. In Sweden and the Netherlands most land for development is purchased by the municipalities who also initiate the development. Britain, with strong land use controls, still relies on private development initiatives. Those controls restrict the land available and contribute to high land prices.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , July 1975 , pp. 225 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

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2 I have used this measure in a study of apartments in the Washington metropolitan area (Neutze, Max, The Suburban Apartment Boom, Washington D.C.: Resources for the Future, 1968, pp. 69–80).Google Scholar

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