‘It’s the hope I can’t stand’: planning, valuation and new community building

ABSTRACT What are the recursive effects of planning on valuations of land, value capture and returns to developers and hence what urban planning can achieve in the building of new urban fringe communities? Valuations affect returns on investment in ways that impact on developer contributions while planning fuels hope in ways that land value capture instruments can never fully realise. We illustrate the discussion with reference to Melbourne, Australia drawing on research interviews with local and state and private sector planners, real estate brokers and valuers. In conclusion, we note the implications of the hope generated by planning for the capture of land value uplifts in the name of new community building; the desirability of integrating insights from the property and planning disciplines; further investigating the temporalities of planning; and the contribution of built environment professions in shaping discourses surrounding the value of planning.