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I think you should start by reading Progress and Poverty - here is a short review: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/your-book-review-progr...

The land with the highest value is city land. Most of city land and the buildings on that land are private property so they cannot be auctioned “every year”.

Singapore and Taiwan lease blocks of state-owned land for (high-rise) residence buildings for a duration of 99 years. This land is auctioned to developers, who then build houses and high rises, then sell them to individuals. The land lease ends after 99 years, so the land can be reused. This obviously does not capture the increase in the value of land over 99 years, but the value of land at the time of the sale.

So both states have taxes on land - a property tax in Singapore and a tax on the increment in the value of land in Taiwan, showing that it’s feasible to estimate the value of land and tax that (value of land = total value - value of improvements).



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