Market Values ?

At intervals of a few years, each home owner receives in the mail a letter from the Valuer General setting the revised value of that persons home.    In fact this valuation has nothing to do with the bricks and mortar of the actual dwelling.  It is an appraisal of what the Valuer General thinks the land it stands on is worth.

That valuation is the base on which the council levies rates and the government charges land tax, but it also bleeds into a host of other charges - such as the Fire Brigade levy and the setting of insurance premiums.   Many people think that these reviews miss the mark because they don't seem to correspond with the actual market values that prevail.

There are wide variations on what the Value General says the land is worth, and what a vacant block on that site would bring at auction - and sometimes that valuation ranges far on each side of reality.    Those that disagree are invited to challenge the valuation, but that is a time wasting and usually frustrating incursion into the labyrinth of bureaucracy - and few bother !

Gripes from home owners have persuaded the New South Wales government to launch an enquiry into the 2.4 million valuations that took place between 2000 and 2012.   This enquiry will look at the confidential data used to arrive at valuations and suggest improvements to the system.

Deciding what a piece of land is worth varies between a buyer and a seller.  That is clearly illustrated by auction results.   If a celebrity moves into a district and builds a mansion, surrounding properties become more attractive and increase in price as a consequence.  Such a presence converts " ordinary " into " fashionable " - and price tags lift accordingly.

This seems to be part and parcel of the controversy over land valuations.   Not only do they decide what sort of council rates bill will be levied, they also reflect the owner's standing in the social pecking order.
Some people rage at what they see as an outrageous valuation that is purely intended to increase their rates bill, while others think their salubrious suburb - in which they paid a fortune because of it's good name - is being denigrated as some sort of socialist conspiracy.

Any sort of valuation relies heavily on the eye of the beholder - and the Valuer General faces an impossible task to please everyone !