[jonahx]

You can improve the land, build more units, replace an small old house with a 4 story apartment building, etc.

[estearum]

Correct, which you should be rewarded for as a developer. I recommend 0% tax on improvements and 100% tax on land value.

[jonahx]

Without land ownership, how is it decided who gets to develop what where?

[frankus]

The most popular proposal (from Henry George) is to maintain individual land ownership, but impose a land-value tax that approaches 100% of the land rent.

The result is that real estate basically sells for roughly what it would cost to rebuild whatever is built on the land.

There is still a premium charged (in the form of LVT) to allocate access to desirable locations, but the revenue goes to the government/community instead of the previous owner. And the eliminating the incentive for land speculation should actually reduce overall costs.

[estearum]

I didn't say no land ownership. I said tax the gains of land ownership. Nothing changes about who decides what gets built etc.