Land use planning policies and market forces: Utopian aspirations thwarted?

This paper asks the question, to what extent do market forces limit planning policies? It delves into the constraining relationship of market forces on planning by reference to urban policies in the UK. In this context market forces are defined as dominant long term spatial economic trends which promote decentralisation. The essay uses policy case studies to develop its arguments. In general planning is shown to suffer from the lack of a systematic analysis of land use markets. Yet at its heart planning not only regulates/constrains the property market it also shapes and stimulates it. Planning is found to be most successful when it is shaping urban growth and decentralisation. It is a fundamentally different task to stem market flows and the probability of success is very different. Market forces do limit routes to Utopian aspirations but planners need the motivation, understanding and means to work with the market to produce desired outcomes.     

Delineation of property rights as institutional foundations for urban land markets in transition

This paper aims to critically reflect on establishing the new frameworks for land markets and urban land development processes in countries in transition. Based on the doctrine of the so-called ‘property rights’ school, land and property ownership has long been identified as a prerequisite for economic development. The common advice to countries in transition creating new frameworks for land markets was to assign and register property rights. The aim of this paper is to discuss the significance of the delineation of property rights, which for urban land development processes and outcomes falls mainly within the remit of land use regulations. In this paper the concept of property rights regime and its characteristics is developed in order to discuss the delineation of property rights and their relationship with urban land development process and its outcome. Process of land development is conceptualized depending on land ownership (private or public), and the role of the owner in the planning process. The outcome is discussed based on the morphological results and the provision of urban infrastructure. On the basis of empirical experience from transition period in Poland it is argued that the emphasis on private property rights in the absence of the institutional foundations of urban land market under capitalism was bound to produce urban problems. First, the new institutional foundation for urban land market was introduced subsequent to dynamic of emerging real estate market, and viable markets existed despite unsolved question of restitution of property rights. Second, the subsequent delineation of property rights is clearly linked to processes of urban land development, which follow the line of development without planning. It can also be related to the morphological results of urban development like the haphazard location of investments and lack of adequate approach to deal with the provision of urban infrastructure.     

Land economic rent computation for urban planning and fiscal purposes

This article proposes an innovative methodology to compute economic rents of land designed to current or potential offices uses. It consists in the establishment of a cause-and-effect relation between offices’ price levels and correspondent levels of land rent, considering the main factors that influence property prices, the ones that guide public and private activities’ location decisions and the inter-dependencies between land and real estate property markets. The rationale subjacent to this research is that land economic rent is determined by the difference between offices market price and a set of costs correspondent to land acquisition, planning and building processes, and a profit margin. An assessment of surplus values is provided in order to compute it as the difference between total land market value (land economic rent plus economic return on land use) and correspondent tributary patrimonial-value according to legal valuation proceedings (settled on property law). In order to reach these goals, variables that exert influence on urban planning and municipal management were identified, an urban management information system was designed and implemented, and an integrated and interactive model to support decisions in urban planning – concerning real estate offices and land prices and characteristics – was developed. These tools were applied as a case study to Oporto city (Portugal). They embody updating functionalities, setting up as an on-going support to policies of municipal land use management (particularly applied to offices uses). A proposal is made to integrate similar models in territorial plans as valuation tools to support better approaches to assess the impact of planning decisions on real estate and land values, thus informing a more equitable, efficient and local-based tax basis. Implications of this analysis for urban planning and fiscal settings are proposed.     

How feasible is regional integration for reconciling land use conflicts across the urban–rural interface? Evidence from Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei metropolitan region in China

Competition among different uses for land is becoming acute under the process of urbanization, and conflicts related to this competition are becoming more frequent and more complex. This article presents a methodology for confronting this issue. By applying an integrated framework, we explore the implicit role of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Regional Integration (BRI) policy in land use conflicts by focusing on the urban-rural interface, and try to address the research question: “How feasible is BRI for reconciling land use conflicts across the urban-rural interface?” An original structure of the analysis is developed based on the identification of three types of conflicts, namely, conflicts over land use structure, conflicts over land conversion and conflicts over landscape pattern. According to the interactions and relationships among these conflicts, we define broad categories of land use conflict areas. Indeed, these conflicts are all related to the unplanned use of agricultural land reserves, which competes with other more immediate uses, and the over-exploitation of land resources caused by unsustainable urban practices. This policy is clearly a critical objective for optimizing the land use structure. It, however, fails to reconcile the conflicts over land conversion and landscape pattern, especially for considerable agricultural land conversion to non-agricultural uses, and low-density development pattern with mixed residential and industrial land uses. Hence, alternative strategies involving public participation, spatial equity, rural revitalization, land-use system reform, and new type of urbanization, can be identified as viable solutions for land use conflict management, which may be complementary to regional integration. The findings of our paper may also contribute to the policy debate on BRI concerning land use planning and regional sustainability.     

土地储备对房地产市场的影响

我国实施土地储备的目标之一就是有利于政府对土地市场的集中统一管理,从而实现土地买方市场向卖方市场的转变,增加政府调控土地市场的能力。文章在分析土地储备实施效果以及土地供给、地价和房价的关系的基础上,提出通过土地储备、城市规划、土地规划等使土地市场供给信息公开化,使企业和公众形成合理预期来进一步完善我国土地市场的建议。     

建立适应土地资源市场配置的国家宏观调控体系

研究目的:构建适应市场配置的国家宏观调控体系,保障土地资源市场配置的顺利实施。研究方法:系统分析法,政策分析法。研究结果:在市场配置下,政府可以通过以下措施实现对土地市场的宏观调控:(1)改革现行土地利用规划、计划制度,建立适应市场经济的规划、计划体系;(2)改革并建立能够促进土地集约利用、优化配置、收益公平分配的土地财税制度;(3)实行土地用途管制分区,限制土地使用权,克服土地利用的负外部性;(4)为实现公共利益征收土地所有权、使用权,由国家确定其土地用途;(5)改革现行行政审批制度,简政放权;(6)尽快制定《土地基本法》。研究结论:目前应首先改革财税制度,把建立稳定的、与地方政府事权相匹配的地税体系作为土地管理制度改革的切入口,为全面开展土地管理制度改革奠定基础。     

土地利用总体规划编制建设用地定量定位探讨

建设用地定量定位是土地利用总体规划编制的重要组成部分，本文通过天台县土地利用总体规划执行过程中碰到的问题分析土地利用总体规划编制中存在的原因，对新一轮土地利用总体规划修编建设用地定量定位提出了新的思路，解决规划控制指标的不平衡和结构性矛盾，使土地利用总体规划编制更具科学性和可操作性。     

On the origins of tourist urbanisation in Greece: Land speculation and property market (in)efficiency

This paper places issues of land speculation and property market efficiency within the limited geographical context of a tourist-agglomeration development process in the island of Rhodes, Greece. The study is based mainly on the elaboration of diachronic cadastral data, covering the period from the very beginning of the tourism development in what as of a formerly an agricultural area, until its establishment as an international mass tourist destination. The economic and financial dimensions of land speculation on market efficiency are explored, through a socio-economic perspective. Land property ownership structures, state policies and bank financing practices have produced synergies that encouraged land speculation, with ambivalent effects on space, property markets and tourist activities. Finally, it is argued that land speculation may be regarded as a socially embedded rational action, which leads to an overall inefficient land market.     

Horse riding posing challenges to the Swedish Right of Public Access

Increasing numbers of horses are being kept for sports and leisure purposes in peri-urban areas throughout the Western world. This expansion of the equestrian sector represents a multifunctional transition, with new production of rural goods and services and increasing influence on land use.In Sweden, the number of horses has increased from 70,000 to approximately 300,000 over the last 30 years. This increase is putting pressure on the traditional Right of Public Access, an old custom allowing the public to walk, cycle or ride on private or state-owned property.This paper analyses multifunctional land use in peri-urban areas in order to provide a deeper understanding of the potential conflicts arising due to the expanding equine sector and to assess how these can affect the Swedish right of public access and spatial planning.A survey of horse riders and landowners in three peri-urban regions of Sweden revealed that these groups differ in their attitudes towards the Right of Public Access. The data also showed that the expanding equine sector is generating new demands on rural areas and there are questions regarding how the current system of open accessibility can meet the increasing market for equestrian leisure activities. The main conclusion is that there seems to be a strong need for intervention and deliberate creation of new ways of handling the accessibility question, where both a bottom-up and top-down approach may be useful.     

工程建设占地指标市场化研究

研究目的：确定缓解有限的土地资源与不断增长的工程建设用地需求之间矛盾的方法。研究方法：文献分析法、判断分析法。研究结果：设立区域乃至全国性的土地占用指标交易市场体系，规划许可范围内的工程建设项目在该市场上可以购买占地指标，所得资金专款专用于土地整理复垦工作，通过该市场将整个国土内的“占”和“补”联系起来，实现耕地占补的“项目平衡”，最终实现宏观意义上的耕地 “占补平衡”。     

地震灾后土地利用应急规划与管理研究述评

地震地质灾害的不确定性造成人民生命财产的重大损失,因此,防灾减灾应当纳入土地利用安全的重要考虑,成为土地资源管理目标之一.在公共管理学基础上,研究尝试将公共危机管理和土地资源管理相结合,通过系统梳理国内外在应急管理、应急规划及相关领域的研究进展,指出在土地学科领域开展应急体系建设的必要性和紧迫性.通过研究对象的遴选,命题地震灾后土地利用应急规划研究,旨在构建土地利用应急规划体系,探讨灾害发生后如何集中有限资源,最大程度减少震害损失,快速优化配置恢复重建用地、评估建设用地抗震适宜性及安排防灾需求用地等.     

Drought and desertification

A highly controversial and debated question is the ultimate cause of desertification. Is it due more to man or to nature? This article addresses this important question and, by use of examples from the Dust Bowl of the USA in the 1930s, argues that drought does not necessarily cause desertification, but that the actions of mankind do. In the 1930s, in the absence of land management legislation or policy, a drought resulted in severe land degradation. In the 1950s in the same area a drought went largely unnoticed, due mainly to the effective soil conservation measures and large-scale investments in infrastructure that had been imposed since the 1930s. Desertification is bound to continue in the absence of effective policy, planning and development.     

Incoherence of urban planning policy in Bucharest: Its potential for land use conflict

Bucharest is a city in transition from its communist past to a market economy, but poor urban planning in is impacting adversely on contested spaces. Lack of effective and strictly enforced regulation and public sector indecision, mixed with problems inherited from the Ceausescu regime, generate many examples of poor urban planning and management. One such example concerns the uncertain future of Văcăreşti “Lake”, our in-depth case study, which is an encapsulated 184 ha wetland whose management has been particularly poor. Employing a mixed methodology of mapping the evolution of the area in question and conducting interviews with surrounding residents and experts in the urban planning or public administration, we demonstrate how lack of an effective planning system and appropriate policies serves to exacerbate conflict between interested parties. Initially there was a conflict between former land owners and authorities, after which developers, surrounding populations, urban planners and ecologists were added. Worse still, the juridical owners of the site are unresolved! Many government agencies and the Bucharest municipality have also compounded the problem by failing to take a lead in future planning and conflict resolution by adopting a passive management approach, which is a recipe for inaction in a poorly regulated land market. Thus, incoherent land use policy has greatly amplified individual and professional conflict both at the local level and city-wide.     

建立开放、竞争、城乡统一而有序的土地市场

研究目的：为建立开放、竞争、城乡统一而有序的土地市场构建政策框架。研究方法：系统分析法,政策分析法。研究结果：（1）转变政府职能,由市场取代政府成为土地资源的基本配置者;（2）进一步完善土地产权制度,明晰和平等保护集体土地产权;（3）允许集体土地进入建设用地市场,建立开放、竞争、城乡统一而有序的土地市场;（4）改革土地征收制度,缩小征地范围,给被征地者公平补偿,执行合意、公开的征地程序。研究结论：建立开放、竞争、城乡统一而有序的土地市场是推进土地资源配置方式和土地利用方式根本转变的重大战略举措。     

Extra-legal land market dynamics on a Guatemalan agricultural frontier: Implications for neoliberal land policies

Neoliberal land policies such as land administration seek to improve property rights and the efficiency of land markets to boost rural economic production. Quantitative studies of pre-existing land markets can help planners to tailor these policies to local conditions. In this article we examine an extra-legal land market currently being modernized by a World Bank-sponsored land administration effort. Specifically, we use a hedonic-type revealed preference model and household survey data to estimate the factors affecting extra-legal land prices along an agricultural frontier in Petén, Guatemala. Our model indicates that land value is significantly affected by land attributes including location, tenure status, presence of water, distance to roads, and distance to landowners’ homes, and that land prices in the northwestern Petén are estimated to have risen on average 26.5% per year between 1977 and 2000. We contend that this rate of increase provides a strong incentive for colonists to speculate in land rather than invest in state sanctioned property rights. We conclude that if frontier development programs, such as land administration, are to become attractive to settlers in Petén and elsewhere, they must compete favorably with economic incentives associated with land speculation, or alternatively, target landowners who are not interested in playing the land market.     

Intermediate levels of property rights and the emerging housing market in Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam

Vietnam introduced a Policy of Renovation (‘Doi Moi’ Policy) to restructure the economy in 1986. Under this policy, the Land Use Right Certificate was introduced as a form of tenure for agricultural land and urban land, according to the Land Laws of 1987 and 1993, respectively. However, by 2001, most properties and/or land in Vietnam still did not have a legal title. Although Vietnam's land reforms in the 1990s provided some of the weakest private rights among the transition countries, big cities like Ho Chi Minh City are presently homes to thriving housing markets. Transactions of ‘property without a physical entity and legal title’ in the real estate market show how property ownership can be formed in order to operate within different institutional contexts. This paper highlights that ‘intermediate levels of property rights’ are the driving forces behind the thriving housing market in Ho Chi Minh City.     

城市住房价格局部线性地理加权回归分析——以湖北省黄石市为例

研究目的:以土地稀缺、资源组团型城市——湖北省黄石市为例,尝试引入局部线性地理加权回归(LLGWR)方法,探索住房价格及影响因子的空间变化规律,为政府房地产市场管理和土地利用规划提供借鉴。研究方法:整理1.93×104个住房样本和398个楼栋样本,遴选楼栋总层数、容积率、绿化率、小区等级、距区域中心距离、销售年份等作为解释变量,采用LLGWR方法构建城市住房价格的模型,并进行分析与解释。研究结果:与常规线性回归(OLS)相比,地理加权回归(GWR)和LLGWR能更合理和准确地解释住房价格的空间变异,且LLGWR优于GWR;销售年份、容积率、地理区位能显著影响住房价格,同时楼栋总层数、绿化率等因素影响住房价格,且在不同功能片区具有明显差异。研究结论:LLGWR模型可以实现系数函数和误差方差的无偏估计,提高模型的估测精度,能更为准确地解释住房价格;宏观市场趋势是影响住房价格的关键因素,但在不同的地理区位,住房价格增长趋势有明显的差异;土地利用规划和土地供应影响房地产空间分布,但研究区内土地价格对住房价格的影响不明显。     

荷兰农地非农化中政府的强势角色及启示

研究目的：分析市场经济体制下荷兰政府在农地非农化过程中积极参与市场运作和强势控制市场的原因，及其对转型期的中国农地非农化改革的借鉴意义。研究方法：流程分析法和归纳法。研究结果：通过流程分析归纳总结了荷兰农地非农化过程中政府、农民、私人投资者等利益相关者的行为选择。研究结论：荷兰在土地产权设置、土地规划体系、土地市场运行和政府参与市场的作用等方面值得中国借鉴。     

土地资源配置方式改革与公共政策转变

研究目的:通过考察我国土地资源配置方式改革进程以及现有的公共政策体系,明确土地资源配置方式改革的目标取向和与之相对应的公共政策转变。研究方法:文献资料法和归纳分析法。研究结果:土地资源低效利用以及伴随的生态环境问题是落后的土地资源配置方式与低效公共政策作用的必然结果。研究结论:通过结合公共政策转变可能遇到的难点进行分析认为,明晰土地财产权权利、培育市场竞争主体以及依据公共政策的制定基础变化调整政策目标等方面的改革是改善土地资源配置效率及增进社会福利必须突破的3点。     

The pioneer market for forest law compliance in Paragominas,Eastern Brazilian Amazon

This paper explores farmers’ motivations to participate in a market mechanism to come into compliance with the forest laws in Brazil. As of July 2008, farmers with deforestation beyond what is legally permitted can choose between compensating for illegal deforestation at another property or restoring this environmental debt in situ. The study analyzes the first real case of such a compensation market in the Amazonia, started in 2014 in the municipality of Paragominas, Pará. I explore the main features of the Paragominas compensation market in order to understand why farmers with forest deficits would opt for such a mechanism. In particular, the main question explored in this study is: what economic and environmental factors influence the choice to compensate rather than restore in properties with a legal reserve deficit in Paragominas? Results show that an increase in the percentage of illegal deforestation that occurred up to 2008 on a property is associated with an increase in the predicted probability of choosing compensation, when keeping agriculture as a land use, the property size, and the number of land uses in the property unchanged. The study also reveals that farmers with forest deficits may prefer to buy a forest area instead of renting for compensation if they have enough capital to invest.