Land-value capture is the family of policies by which the public recovers part of the increase in land values created by its own actions, such as new infrastructure, rezoning or planning permission. Mechanisms include betterment levies and developer contributions, tax-increment financing, the sale or lease of publicly assembled land, and special assessments on benefiting owners. The idea has deep roots in the economics of Henry George and in early British attempts to tax 'betterment', and it underpins instruments from German land readjustment to Hong Kong's land leasing. Many cities use captured value to fund transit and affordable housing.
It is the central fiscal principle linking planning to public finance, allowing cities to fund infrastructure and housing from the land-value gains their own decisions create.