Speculative land fragmentation in the Netherlands: the potential of Nordic land formation tools to combat land shredding

Purpose In the Netherlands, there is a practice of entrepreneurs who buy land, fragment it into tiny parcels and sell it using aggressive marketing campaigns for extremely high prices to private people suggesting that this is a fine investment, because of expected planning gain. However, usually, this land has no prospect for development at all being often situated in areas that have no development perspective at all. Furthermore, the speculative shredding of land makes it unfit for future uses. This paper aims to explore whether the legal systems of Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) with regard to subdivision, can help to address this issue of speculative land fragmentation, and it explores the potential of Nordic experiences for including some of these principles in the legal system of the Netherlands. Design/methodology/approach The comparative study is based on study of relevant documents and legal materials, studies and expert interviews. Findings Denmark, Norway and Sweden have each a system that will not allow speculative land fragmentation in the ways it appears in the Netherlands. The way these systems are organised differs, with a central role of a private surveyor (Denmark), the municipality (Norway) or a national agency (Sweden). Finland has a system that will not prevent subdivision outside areas that are planned for construction. Practical implications Different alternative ways are discussed on how the experiences from the Nordic countries can be used to change the Netherlands system. Originality/value The speculative land fragmentation in the Netherlands is a rather new phenomenon and there is no previous publication on the ways how learning from Nordic countries may provide options to prevent it.