“In the middle of a housing crisis we need to be building houses, not keeping empty parking lots. Land shouldn't be used to build wealth, it should be used to house thriving communities. LVR shifts our framing of land away from profit to people. Renters, families and our wider community will benefit from that.”

“Land value is a fairer rating base, because it's based on the value a landowner could be deriving from the infrastructure and services council provides for them, whether they use those or not. Unlike capital value, rating it doesn't subsidise those who underuse their land relative to its potential.”

“Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics William Vickrey, once commented that a tax on land is 'one of the best taxes' and a tax on improvements is 'one of the worst taxes'. A switch from a capital value base to a land value base for rates enhances both efficiency and equity.”

“Together with the upzoning allowed under the new district plan, evidence suggests Land Value Rates will support increased investment in Wellington’s buildings and contribute to economic prosperity, more broadly.”

“Downtown land serviced by superb council services can sit as surface parking lots and pay a trivial rating levy, because there is little capital sitting on top of it. If council rates were based on land value, rather than land plus capital, there would be stronger incentive to build apartments or commercial developments – perhaps with parking on the lower levels.”

“The least bad tax is the property tax on the unimproved value of land.”

“Believe it or not, urban economics models actually do suggest that [land value] taxation would be the right approach.”

“I think the ownership of land still provides one of the most important bases of taxation, and we almost surely do not tax it as much as we should.”

“The property tax is, economically speaking, a combination of one of the worst taxes—the part that is assessed on real estate improvements…and one of the best taxes—the tax on land or site value.”

“Ground-rents are a still more proper subject of taxation than the rent of houses.”

“It is a well-known result in economics that land value taxation is efficient since it does not distort the supply of the tax base.”

“It is worth noting that 71% of councils levy their general rates on capital value rather than land value. This is not helpful to encouraging property development. This is because rates based on capital value tax development. By switching to land value rating…these councils would increase the tax burden on vacant relative to developed land without causing any distortion. Indeed, such a switch to land value taxation would improve productivity and economic efficiency more generally.”

“There is no doubt in my mind that the graded tax [Land Value Rates] has been a good thing for Pittsburgh. It has discouraged the holding of vacant land for speculation and provides an incentive for building improvements. It produced a more prosperous city.”

“I should note that the City of Harrisburg was considered the second most distressed in the United States twelve years ago under the Federal distress criteria. Since then, over $1.2 billion new investment has occurred here, reversing nearly three decades of very serious previous decline. None of this happened by accident and a variety of economic development initiatives and policies were created and utilized. The two-rate [Land Value Rates] system has been and continues to be one of the key local policies that has been factored into this initial economic success here.”