Vacant land taxes and housing supply

Local government funding and financing main illustration

Author

Capital Strategic Advisors

Date published

1 December 2019

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CSA Vacant land taxes and housing supply [1 MB PDF]

This paper examines whether vacant land taxes would be a useful mechanism to improve the supply of available housing for New Zealanders. This reflects a request from the Minister of Finance in April 2019, responding to a recommendation from the 2019 Tax Working Group (TWG) for the Commission to look at whether local councils should be empowered to introduce local vacant land taxes.

This paper considers taxes on vacant land and vacant dwellings and refers to them collectively as vacant property taxes. It finds neither tax is likely to be a useful mechanism to improve the supply of available housing for New Zealanders.

This paper was prepared for the Commission's local government funding and financing inquiry.

Tags Finance and tax Local government

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