The City of Greater Geelong has sent in an interesting submission to the Commonwealth Senate Housing Affordability inquiry. We could hardly have said it any better ourselves:

In the submission, the council says the capital being acquired by the private market when land is rezoned could be captured by the Government.

“Across Australia, communities are creating billions of dollars of value through their rationing of development rights,” the submission says.

“This value, or betterment, is currently flowing into the hands of a lucky few, rather than being effectively captured by the communities who created it. Sound public policy dictates that this inequity be addressed as a matter of urgency.”

The submission goes on to say the public acquisition of land would provide a substantial public funding source that could be used “to meet important housing and urban development objectives”.

Another similar adaption of the principal of capturing economic rent can be see in Community Land Trusts