Detroit May Have a Solution for Reducing Rent in the U.S.
forbes.com
forbes.com
This does not directly penalise leaving lots empty / derilict. It does however reward people for not doing that.
The main downsides are that you have to have some wy to determine value (and people really hate that) and that you end up subsidising bigger, richer households compared to smaller poorer ones on similar land. It also incentivises people to build those 50 unit super buildings,
The article is sort of weird. It makes a bunch of assumptions and does not support them, and it wanders all over the place using statistics that don't actually support its claims. C'est le vie.
Isn't this describing a simple income tax, where that income comes from rent, and not a land value tax?
> Unlike a property tax, a land value tax also encourages the development of more rental units while discouraging building neglect and vacancy. That’s because under a land value tax, owning a dilapidated home or empty lot is more expensive than developing housing on that land.
Why is it more expensive? And isn't a problem with a land value tax that it encourages keeping that value low, to reduce the tax burden? Suppose you have a street of homeowners, and they decide to fix up their yards, clean the street, turn an empty lot into a park, and other neighborhood improvements. Land in that neighborhood becomes more valuable, and the residents are punished for their good work with a higher tax!