Land Policy

Element 1: Property valuation

In the element land valuation (element 1), the foundations are laid for understanding the relationship between planning and market value. This includes the determination of market values of undeveloped and developed land as a basis for urban planning calculations. Students learn about the relationships between planning, property and value as well as how to understand and calculate economic interactions.

The subject of the course is therefore property theory (Art. 14 GG property as a social construction, planning-related increase in value), land rent theory, land market observation, land value determination, expert committees, value determination procedures, as well as the role of land value determination within land policy. In this module, students will be able to independently determine market values and perform urban planning calculations.

Element 2: Land management

In land management (Element 2), students learn about implementation instruments of land policy (including reallocation, expropriation, active land policy, urban development contracts, heritable building rights). The implementation instruments are structured along four different land policy strategies, each of which describes a different positioning of the municipality with respect to the land market: active, passive, reactive and protective.

Students are expected to understand the basic functioning of instruments (their function, purpose, origin, and classification vis-à-vis other instruments). Furthermore, students should be able to critically question and reflect on instruments. For this purpose, international perspectives as well as practical examples will be discussed in the course. The aim is for students to be able to apply instruments of land policy to concrete planning situations.

Element 3: Land policy

The Land Policy lecture (Element 3) aims to discuss and reflect on the strategic use of implementation tools. In this element, land policy theories and their application in spatial planning are taught. Political science approaches to understanding land policy - such as the Institutional Resource Regime Approach and Public Policy Analysis approaches (according to Knoepfel et al.) - form the basis.

Core components of the lecture are four evaluation categories for land policy: effectiveness, efficiency, legitimacy and equity. These form the starting point for debate and reflection in the lecture hall and provide a link to Element 2. Elements 2 and 3 are ultimately brought together and practiced in a land policy game simulation. This requires active participation during the course.

The learning objective is to enable students to independently develop land policy strategies (i.e. the targeted use of land policy instruments) for concrete planning situations.