Leveraging Land to Enable Urban Transformation : Lessons from Global Experience

Around the world, in both developed and developing countries, policy makers use a variety of tools to manage and accommodate urban growth and redevelopment. Government officials have three main concerns in terms of land policy: (i) accommodating ur...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lozano-Gracia, Nancy, Young, Cheryl, Lall, Somik V., Vishwanath, Tara
Format: Policy Research Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:
TAX
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/01/17170556/leveraging-land-enable-urban-transformation-lessons-global-experience
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12173
Description
Summary:Around the world, in both developed and developing countries, policy makers use a variety of tools to manage and accommodate urban growth and redevelopment. Government officials have three main concerns in terms of land policy: (i) accommodating urban expansion, (ii) providing infrastructure, and (iii) managing density. Together, the planning for infrastructure and urban expansion, land use, and density policies combine to shape the spatial structure of cities. This paper reviews global experience on using land based instruments to accommodate urban development and financing infrastructure. The review suggests that urban transformation is most efficient when land markets are fluid, particularly when they are grounded in strong institutions that (i) assign and protect property rights, (ii) enable independent valuation and public dissemination of land values across uses, and (iii) enable the judicial system to handle disputes that may arise in the process.