9
The Letter 'B' Market
7.
Letter B entitlements are transferable and
freely bought and sold, both by prospective land-owners
and also by persons who wish to speculate on the
appreciation of the entitlements themselves. Because the
premia for new building land are valued as at the date of
surrender of the old land, the older entitlements (which
secure new land at the lowest premia) are the most valuable.
For example, entitlements deriving from the early sixties
are bought and sold for just under $300 per square foot.
.i
Disposal of Land to Letter B Holders
8.
One of the recurrent administrative problems of the Letter B system is to decide which of many competing
owners of exchange entitlements should be granted which
new building land. Many systems of allocation of new land
have been tried, but none has been found entirely satis-
factory. Since 1974, new land has been allocated to Letter B
owners by a competitive tender process, which awards the
land to the tenderer who has offered the oldest selections
of Letters B. This system adds value to the older Letter B, since not only do they obtain any new land granted at the
lowest premis, but they also earn priority in the tender.
/Interchangeability