unearned increment
Noun
Meaning
unearned increment (countable and uncountable, plural unearned increments)
Any exceptional increase in the value of land, houses, etc., not due to the owner's labour or outlay.
Hypernyms
Examples
Moreover, there is an unearned increment on capital and on labor, due to the presence, around the capitalist and the laborer, of a great, industrious, and prosperous society.
Furthermore, the unearned increment from land appears in the United States as a gain to the first comers, who have here laid the foundations of a new State.
They themselves do not cultivate the soil. Nor do they allow others to cultivate it. They keep it idle to enrich themselves, to pocket the millions of dollars of unearned increment.