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

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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

This annual increase in the value of new land is known as its "unearned increment."

From The Choctaw Freedmen and The Story of Oak Hill Industrial Academy by Flickinger, Robert Elliott

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

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

My lower self, the self that wants bread and meat and warmth and shelter, lives on unearned increment.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 22, 1914 by Seaman, Owen, Sir