ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the main guidelines of public policy with respect to land and property markets, as they are defined by the Ministere de l'Equipement, des Transports et du Tourisme. Seven topics characterize the policy environment in the 1980s. These are institutional – the central-local relationship, law – deregulation and land supply, location of urban and industrial development and redevelopment, the building industry, economics – the 1987–9 property boom and its consequences, the rate of property ownership the rate of property ownership. During the 1960s and 1970s, the government had to face rapid population growth and a shift from rural to urban areas. Important steps towards deregulation were adopted at the beginning of the 1980s, enhanced by decentralization, and extended in 1986–8. A constant argument in supply-side land economics is that an over-regulated zoning system, by reducing the areas where development is authorized, is a major cause of land-price increases.
