PHILADELPHIA — With an estimated 40,000 abandoned houses, lots and commercial buildings, Philadelphia wants to consolidate its inventory of distressed real estate by creating a “land bank” to make purchase more attractive to potential buyers.

If the City Council votes this fall, as expected, to establish the land bank, Philadelphia will join Syracuse, Macon, Ga., and a number of other cities that have adopted plans like it to encourage buyers who are committed to making improvements, instead of speculators, to acquire tax-delinquent properties.

“There are new tools to allow government to acquire tax-delinquent properties without putting them out on the market to the highest bidder,” said Rick Sauer, executive director of the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, which is helping to lead the land-bank initiative.

To keep property from speculators who might sit on it for years without improving it, he said, the land bank would insist that buyers were current on taxes, had no history of code violations and had the resources to make promised changes.