Now we tell you the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods implemented in some countries.
Increasing price of land:
-Cities like Singapore is very small as therefore makes the land very valuable as competition among different land uses is intense. The price of the land is an effective method to allocate the scarce land in a competitive situation. The closer one gets to the city centre, the more expensive the land becomes.
-Countries like America has much more supply of land than Singapore. There is no need to increase the price of land to allocate the land for different uses as there is no competition for land.
-Therefore, increasing the price of land is not very effective and therefore a disadvantage to them, an advantage to us.
-For example, “Property prices started to rise in 2005, but only really took off in 2007. Singapore’s residential property price index rose by 23.6% (20.9% in real terms) in 2007, after 2006’s 7.15% rise (6.1% in real terms). Property prices in prime districts rose considerably more.”(taken from google.com)
-For example, In 1996 the unit land price of a single family residence (middle class) of Tokyo averaged 489,000 yen per m2
-Compared by the index of Tokyo as 100, the average land price of Singapore was at 146.0 (714,000 yen/m2) with very active property market due to its growing economy. This shows that the price of land in Singapore is very high.
Land Clearance:
-Land clearance may seem weird to be known as an advantage, but it is, to Latin America. “Excessive deforestation has been taking place in tropical areas of Latin America for the past several decades. Among the causes of accelerated deforestation are population and income growth, extensive logging, expanding agricultural growth patterns and lagging agricultural yields. Government policies have also contributed to accelerating deforestation, by adopting measures to increase the profitability of agriculture in forested areas, constructing roads in frontier areas and adopting patterns of agricultural growth favoring large-scale mechanized production and low employment generation.
-According to economic theory, improving tenure security in established agricultural areas should increase productivity, labor use, and the efficiency of land market transactions. Recent empirical evidence in Honduras, Paraguay and Brazil has confirmed that access to a secure title increases access to credit and promotes on-farm investments. Therefore, strengthening property rights is an important element in a strategy of agricultural intensification and employment generation. It will reduce demographic pressures on forest resources as well as the demand for additional agricultural output. However, increased tenure security must be complemented by removing those policy biases that facilitate land concentration and the under-utilization of productive lands.” (taken from http://www.iadb.org/sds/publication/publication_1030_e.htm)
-This shows that land clearance benefitted Latin America and so it is an advantage to them.
Maximising Land Use:
- Singapore is small and land is scarce. Buildings are built close together as a result of the intense competition for land. This will then allow more residential flats to house a growing population and offers more offices to accommodate expanding economic activities. The buildings are then built high to have more space, or stories, for offices and commercial uses, instead of having more buildings to compete with limited land supply. Skyscrapers are another solution to the rising demand for land. This method is very effective for Singapore as we have little land and could make use of the height of space. Therefore, this method is an advantage to us.
- While for countries like China which has a very big area of land, this method is not very effective as there is abundant supply of land and there is no competition for land and so maximising use of land is not needed. Therefore, it is a disadvantage to China.
Credits from www.google.com
and http://www.iadb.org/sds/publication/publication_1030_e.htm
yours sincerely. landlovers
7:00 AM