The Public Land Dividend

State and local governments own large amounts of well-located, underused land that could help ease housing shortages, but very little of it reaches the housing market. The barrier is largely institutional, rooted in how that land is held and governed. In the United States and internationally, holdings are dispersed among many agencies and jurisdictions, so no single actor can see or manage them holistically, and most disposition rules steer public agencies toward one-time sales rather than lasting public benefit.

This paper argues that governments can earn a larger and more durable return—the public land dividend—by managing their landholdings as a portfolio rather than parcel by parcel. It sets out a framework organized around four pillars—know what you have; decide as a whole; retain what you build; and close the gap—and draws on emerging practices to describe approaches that governments at any level can adapt to their own legal and political circumstances.