Capitalization of Fiscal Variables and Land Scarcity

Fiscal packages usually capitalize into house prices. But if enough land for construction is available, housing developers can supply new houses and capitalization may disappear. We provide a theoretical model in which income taxes and public services capitalize at lower rates when housing supply elasticity increases. Using an empirical linear interaction model, we estimate the impact of available land for construction on capitalization rates with a panel of Swiss communities. Results indicate that fiscal variables do not capitalize differently in communities where housing supply is constrained by land availability. Thus, land availability is not sufficient for capitalization to disappear.