Who Holds Taxi Licences?
For licence holders who bought licences many years ago, their current values represent massive capital gains. For example, a Victorian licence purchased in 1993 has more than doubled in value in real terms. A South Australian licence purchased 20 years ago has seen its real value increase sixfold. For this group, increasing the number of licences would result in the loss of a paper gain which has arisen as a windfall. That is, the licence value has risen solely due to past government regulatory restrictions. Moreover, past restrictions on the actual number of taxis has resulted in substantially greater profits to investors than would otherwise have been the case. Approximately half of all taxi licences are held by investors. Many investors are long-term licence holders who lease the licences to taxi companies or directly to drivers. For investors who are not directly involved in the provision of taxi services, buying taxi licences represents an investment choice among a range of financ
