IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/v89fg.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Land as airspace: How rezoning privatizes public space (and why governments should not give it away for free)

Author

Listed:
  • Murray, Cameron

    (The University of Sydney)

  • Gordon, Josh

Abstract

A popular but contested view is that mass rezoning is an essential policy measure to address housing affordability. Often obscured in debates about this measure is that rezoning involves the privatization of public space. We clarify the nature of the policy by recognizing that property rights over land are, conceptually, a bundle of socially negotiated rights to parcels of airspace. This view shows that rezoning to provide rights to airspace for existing landowners is not costless. It involves transferring valuable property rights from the public to existing private landowners for free, creating a more unequal distribution of property rights ownership without necessarily generating faster housing development. We argue that giving away public rights to airspace should not be done for free and explore what policy measures retain value from residential rezoning for the public.

Suggested Citation

  • Murray, Cameron & Gordon, Josh, 2021. "Land as airspace: How rezoning privatizes public space (and why governments should not give it away for free)," OSF Preprints v89fg, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:v89fg
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/v89fg
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/614d398c9ef82f000eccd2f5/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/v89fg?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Murray, Cameron K. & Frijters, Paul, 2016. "Clean money, dirty system: Connected landowners capture beneficial land rezoning," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 99-114.
    2. Ross Kendall & Peter Tulip, 2018. "The Effect of Zoning on Housing Prices," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2018-03, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    3. Orsetta Causa & Nicolas Woloszko & David Leite, 2019. "Housing, wealth accumulation and wealth distribution: Evidence and stylized facts," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1588, OECD Publishing.
    4. Edward Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko, 2018. "The Economic Implications of Housing Supply," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 3-30, Winter.
    5. Murray, Cameron K., 2020. "Time is money: How landbanking constrains housing supply," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    6. Natacha Aveline-Dubach & Guillaume Blandeau, 2019. "The political economy of transit value capture: The changing business model of the MTRC in Hong Kong," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(16), pages 3415-3431, December.
    7. Murray, Cameron, 2020. "A housing supply absorption rate equation," OSF Preprints 7n8rj, Center for Open Science.
    8. Murray, Cameron & Limb, Mark, 2020. "We zoned for density and got higher house prices: Supply and price effects of upzoning over 20 years," OSF Preprints zkt7v, Center for Open Science.
    9. repec:cdl:bphupl:qt90m9g90w is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Natacha Aveline-Dubach & Guillaume Blandeau, 2019. "The political economy of transit value capture: The changing business model of the MTRC in Hong Kong [L'économie politique de la captation de valeur foncière (Land value capture): le nouveau modèle," Post-Print halshs-02100616, HAL.
    11. Gabriel Metcalf, 2018. "Sand Castles before the Tide? Affordable Housing in Expensive Cities," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 59-80, Winter.
    12. Peter H. Pearse, 1988. "Property Rights and the Development of Natural Resource Policies in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 14(3), pages 307-320, September.
    13. Aaron A. Moore, 2013. "Trading Density for Benefits: Toronto and Vancouver Compared," IMFG Papers 13, University of Toronto, Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:osf:osfxxx:v89fg_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:osf:osfxxx:69m23_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Murray, Cameron & Phibbs, Peter, 2022. "Evidence-lite zone: The weak evidence behind the economic case against planning regulation," OSF Preprints 69m23, Center for Open Science.
    4. Murray, Cameron, 2020. "A housing supply absorption rate equation," OSF Preprints 7n8rj, Center for Open Science.
    5. repec:osf:osfxxx:7n8rj_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Cameron K. Murray, 2022. "A Housing Supply Absorption Rate Equation," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 228-246, February.
    7. Gabbe, C.J. & Kevane, Michael & Sundstrom, William A., 2021. "The effects of an “urban village” planning and zoning strategy in San Jose, California," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Murray, Cameron, 2019. "The Australian housing supply myth," OSF Preprints r925z, Center for Open Science.
    9. Murray, Cameron & Limb, Mark, 2020. "We zoned for density and got higher house prices: Supply and price effects of upzoning over 20 years," OSF Preprints zkt7v, Center for Open Science.
    10. Christian Dustmann & Bernd Fitzenberger & Markus Zimmermann, 2022. "Housing Expenditure and Income Inequality," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(645), pages 1709-1736.
    11. Graeme Guthrie, 2023. "Land Hoarding and Urban Development," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 753-793, November.
    12. Nikos Karadimitriou & Sonia Guelton & Athanasios Pagonis & Silvia Sousa, 2022. "Public Value Capture, Climate Change, and the ‘Infrastructure Gap’ in Coastal Development: Examining Evidence from France and Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.
    13. Du, Yao & Sun, Guibo & Heinen, Eva, 2024. "Does subjective wellbeing modify travel behaviour changes among older people in response to a new metro line?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    14. Weihang Gong & Jing (Victor) Li & Mee Kam Ng, 2021. "Deciphering Property Development around High-Speed Railway Stations through Land Value Capture: Case Studies in Shenzhen and Hong Kong," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-16, November.
    15. Congcong Li & Natacha Aveline-Dubach, 2025. "The Limits of a Success Story: Rethinking the Shenzhen Metro “Rail Plus Property” Model for Planning Sustainable Urban Transit in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-31, July.
    16. Donovan, Stuart & Maltman, Matthew, 2025. "Dispelling myths: Reviewing the evidence on zoning reforms in Auckland," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    17. Molloy, Raven, 2020. "The effect of housing supply regulation on housing affordability: A review," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    18. Murray, Cameron K., 2020. "Time is money: How landbanking constrains housing supply," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    19. Maria Chiara Cavalleri & Boris Cournède & Volker Ziemann, 2019. "Housing markets and macroeconomic risks," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1555, OECD Publishing.
    20. Elliott Sclar, 2021. "The Infinite Elasticity of Air: New York City’s Financialization of Transferable Development Rights," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(2), pages 353-380, March.
    21. Chan, Ho Yin & Tse, Wai-Yi & Chen, Anthony, 2025. "Unlocking the gates: Pedestrian route choice in transforming metro station paid areas into mobile public spaces," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    22. Yuming Fu & Song Shi, 2022. "Barriers to urban spatial development: Evidence from the 2010–2011 Christchurch earthquakes," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 218-245, January.
    23. Nikos Karadimitriou & Sonia Guelton & Athanasios Pagonis & Silvia Sousa, 2022. "Public Value Capture, Climate Change, and the 'Infrastructure Gap' in Coastal Development: Examining Evidence from France and Greece [Captation de valeur foncière, changement climatique et le "," Post-Print halshs-03690708, HAL.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:v89fg. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.