Housing Taxation and Housing Policy

Abstract

In much of the world, the supply of housing is largely determined by private investment decisions; in some other countries, housing investment decisions are public ones in large part, but housing is offered at close to economic prices, and consumer decisions as to the disposition of consumption expenditures have a bearing on the level and composition of the housing stock. In either situation — wherever private investment and/or consumption decisions heavily influence the resolution of a country’s housing ‘problem’ — governmental housing policy measures include not only the familiar positive financial inducements in the form of subsidies and favourable credit terms but also the negative instrument of taxes on housing.