Breaking news – proposed changes to land valuation procedures delayed

The State Government has today announced that the proposed Valuation of Land and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 will be delayed pending further consultation with industry groups and stakeholders.

The Government has come under increasing pressure from industry groups to delay the Bill which, if enacted as currently drafted, would have:

• changed the method of valuation under the existing legislation by altering the definition of unimproved value to include the value of leases, goodwill, profit and loss and infrastructure charges;
• effectively quashed existing appellants’ rights as the altered method of valuation would have applied retrospectively to all valuations from 30 June 2002; and
• increased the level of technical detail required for land owners to appeal future valuations.

The Bill was initially introduced on 11 February 2010 after the Queensland Court of Appeal dismissed the Government’s appeal in Chief Executive, Department of Natural Resources and Mines v. Kent Street Pty Ltd (2009). This case involved the method of valuation used by the Government at Pacific Fair Shopping Centre on the Gold Coast.

In its judgment the Court held that the Government’s decision to include the value of all leases and businesses at the shopping centre as part of the unimproved land value was unlawful as it was inconsistent with the existing Valuation of Land Act 1944 (Qld).

In effect the Court’s decision meant that the unimproved value of the shopping centre was $47.5 million as opposed to the Government’s initial assessment of $255 million.

In introducing the Bill, Minister Stephen Robertson said that if the Court’s interpretation in the Pacific Fair Case stood, it would see a 20 per cent reduction in valuations for industrial land and a 35 per cent reduction in valuations for commercial land.

If applied retrospectively, the new method of valuation under the Bill would have been used for all new valuations as well as in determining all existing, unfinalised valuation appeals.

We will issue further alerts as this matter develops.