unearned increment

American  

noun

1. the increase in the value of property, especially land, due to natural causes, as growth of population, rather than to any labor or expenditure by the owner.

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unearned increment British  

noun

1. a rise in the market value of landed property resulting from general economic factors

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Etymology

Origin of unearned increment

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

unearned increment

But severe levies on unearned increment jack up the rate in some brackets as high as the Federal tax.

From Time Magazine Archive

Adoption of the single tax would do away with the profits which come from land appreciation and are known as unearned increment or economic rent.

From Time Magazine Archive

If any one else gets money in this way they call it an unearned increment.

From Treading the Narrow Way by Barrett, R. E.

Apart from the matter of unearned increment, however, he always followed his hunches; but this one he did not like at all.

From Subspace Survivors by Dongen, H. R. van

The enormous "unearned increment" that accrues for the fortunate owner of land who toils not neither spins to obtain it, may seem difficult of justification.

From The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice by Leacock, Stephen