Incentivizing residential land development

The owners of undeveloped urban land are often blamed for restricting housing supply and thereby driving up house prices in the face of increasing demand. This article shows how greater variation in amenity values across a housing market reduces competition between developers and makes delaying development more attractive to landowners. Competition can be enhanced, and development of land accelerated, by reducing this variation. In particular, governments can increase housing supply in more desirable areas by taking actions that boost the amenity value of land in less desirable areas.