I would love to know why it is unrealized gains is such a popular property tax strategy.

I’d love to know why people are happy with others making a fortune not through hard work, but through buying land and letting others hard work increase its value.

In the case of these pubs it sounds like they’re being priced out of the area through no fault of their own while trying to run an honest business so I don’t quite follow your logic here…

Rates are based (at least in principle) on the rental value of the building, making the gain concept irrelevant. The rent would be the same.