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NSW landholders to gain from proposed valuation changes

NSW landholders should benefit from proposed changes to the state's land valuation system, which include scrapping the office of Valuer-General, if they are adopted by the government.

 

Valuations are expected to be more transparent, less volatile and more ­easily contested if the reforms recommended by an inquiry into the system are implemented, said the inquiry's chair, Matt Kean.

Businesses who have found it difficult to forecast land taxes as their valuations see-sawed should find future valuations more predictable.

Individuals who have their properties compulsorily acquired would have an easier and more robust channel through which to appeal against questionable valuations.

The Valuer-General, Philip Western, who has been in the $325,000-a-year role for almost a decade, is likely to lose his job.

"We are recommending a comprehensive overhaul of the way land ­valuations are done in this state," Mr Kean said.

The committee tabled its recommendations in the NSW Parliament on Thursday, after extensive research into the system, which included the committee's cross-party members visiting sites with disputed valuations.

These included businesses such as the base metals miner Perilya, whose Broken Hill site was over-valued by about $16 million, leading to inflated land taxes. Perilya has said the current process had produced volatile results for miners.

AVERAGE OF ANNUAL ASSESSMENTS

Under the proposed reforms, valuations would be set as an average of annual assessments to reduce volatility. Land taxes are determined now on valuations taken every three or four years.

Methodology would also be available to landowners in the new system.

"We want to make sure we can ­provide landowners confidence with the land valuations they receive," Mr Kean said.

The proposed Valuation Commission, which would replace the office of Valuer-General, would make a clear separation of the objection process from the assessment process. The head of the appeal process would be separate from the land valuation process, making appeals more transparent and more accountable, Mr Kean said.

The lack of separation in the office now was a key concern raised by individuals who had their land compulsorily acquired.

Landowners such as Koula Rafailidis, who had property compulsorily acquired in Catherine Field in Sydney's south-west, said the current process lacks transparency. "You're not given much opportunity to participate," Ms Rafailidis said.

Read the full article in the Australian Financial Review here.