I think I may have been unclear. In that context, I meant non-specific vacancy discouragement, such as simply jacking up commercial property taxes. The ideal ma

I think I may have been unclear. In that context, I meant non-specific vacancy discouragement, such as simply jacking up commercial property taxes. The ideal market solution would be something approximating a Georgist-style land tax, trying to tax non-improvement appreciation of property at ~100%, killing the land speculation business. But if you implement that at a city scale, there are other cities in every direction more than happy to let the financiers of new construction become obscenely rich off of that speculation. So your options are A) high level reform, at the state or preferably national level, to eliminate that axis of competition or B) trying to solve the specific ill of deliberate vacancy without murdering your city's competitive edge in attracting business and investment.