The Ontario Land Speculation Tax: An Analysis of an Unearned Increment Land Tax

housing prices by discouraging speculation, and to recover for the public a major share of windfall gains from land speculation.''3 The paper begins with a summary of the major features of the tax (Section 1). Section 2 discusses the role of speculation in real estate markets and the general effects of the tax on this speculation. Section 3 analyzes the effects of the tax on various classes of real estate, and Section 4 considers the implications of the tax for the degree of concentration in the construction industry and in the ownership of residential investment property. Section 5 summarizes the major findings of the analysis and considers their policy implications.