The owners of undeveloped urban land are often blamed for restricting housing supply and thereby driving up house prices in the face of increasing demand. This paper shows how greater intra-city variation in amenity values reduces competition between developers and makes delaying development...

This paper presents a model of a housing market with a fixed supply of land available for future development. Building density and the rate of land development are both endogenous. Competition amongst atomistic landowners leads to welfare-maximizing development policies. However, a monopolist...