Lockyer v Minister for Lands
[1996] QLC 29
•22 March 1996
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BRISBANE
22 MARCH 1996
Re: Determination of unimproved value -
Application for Conversion of Tenure -
Land Act 1962
Special Lease No: 22/50584, Herberton District
Lessee: James S. Lockyer
(Hearing at Atherton)
D E C I S I O N
Mr Lockyer made application for conversion of tenure of this lease on 1st September, 1994. It is at that date when the unimproved value of the land is required to be determined.
The land is described as Lot 804 on Plan H25335, Parish of Herberton, and contains an area of 4.0469 ha. It is situated fronting Alma Road, about 3.5 kilometres east of Wondecla. Alma Road is gravel formed off Bradlaugh Road which is also gravel formed to the bitumen sealed Rolley Road. Electricity is capable of extension, at the applicant's cost, from Bradlaugh Road. Telephone has been connected. Apart from rainwater storage, a private water supply line has been laid from an external source to a property on the opposite side of Alma Road. The lessee of the subject land, Mr Lockyer, is a part owner with other family members, of that property opposite. An extension of that water supply has been laid to the subject property.
The land is zoned "Rural". It comprises grey sandy loam and partly granite soils and is gently sloping. The highest and best use of the land is as a rural residential homesite.
On the basis of its highest and best use, the Minister determined the unimproved value at the relevant date in the amount of $40.000. That determination was the valuation of Mr R.G. Moroney, registered valuer with the Lands Department. His basis of valuation was a comparison with three sales of rural residential sites in the locality. Brief details of those sales are as follows:
(1)Lot 4, Zinglemann Road, 2.058 ha, zoned "Rural Residential", sold in January 1994, for $48,000, showing an analysed unimproved value of $46,530. A creek formed the rear boundary of the sale site which Mr Moroney considered to be superior to the subject land.
(2)Lot 34, Wieland Road, 5.76 ha, zoned "Rural", sold in February 1994, for $50,000 as unimproved land. There was no natural water source and electricity mains were about 200 metres distant. Mr Moroney's evidence was that this site was very similar to the subject land and superior mainly because of the larger area.
(3)Lot 4, Chester Road, 1.537 ha, zoned "Rural Residential", sold in April 1994, for $41,500, showing an analysed unimproved value of $37,500. Mr Moroney had considered that site to be slightly inferior to the subject land.
Mr Lockyer submitted that the unimproved value of the subject land should have been $27,500. His basis of assessment was in some way related to the conditions of the lease. He saw it as unfair that the land should be described as having an external water supply when that was a private line constructed to a pump site on a creek some distance removed. He was concerned that if his family lost control of the site to which the water line was laid then that supply was at risk of being denied to the subject property. He was not impressed by the sales basis used by Mr Moroney, due mainly to the location of the sale properties. Mr Lockyer tendered photographs showing that improvement conditions of the lease had been met and the nature of soil type on the land which had been partly degraded prior to the lease being granted, by local logging activities.
The only valuation evidence before the Court is that provided by Mr Moroney. His valuation of the subject land is seen to be soundly based. He accepted that the external water supply was a private improvement but saw the availability of an external supply as a potentiality which the land possessed in its unimproved state. While he described electricity as being available, he was well aware that cost was involved in its extension to the subject land.
Nothing emerged during the hearing which has damaged Mr Moroney's valuation evidence and it is my opinion that his valuation of the subject land is both fair and reasonable.
As was explained to Mr Lockyer at the hearing, the task of the Court is not to consider the conditions of the lease, but to determine the unimproved value of the land at the date of application, on the basis that it was (hypothetically) held in fee simple.
The unimproved value is, for the reasons given, determined in the amount of Forty Thousand Dollars ($40,000) as at the date of application.
RE WENCK
MEMBER OF THE LAND COURT
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