Macarthur Central Shopping Centre Pty Ltd as TTE v Valuer-General (No. 2)

Macarthur Central Shopping Centre Pty Ltd, as trustee for the Macarthur Central Shopping Centre Trust, appealed a decision by the Valuer-General concerning the valuation of a shopping centre site. The dispute involved the assessment of the site's value, including issues of comparable sales, the impact of a development approval, and the effect of the site's volumetric and heritage listing status. The case was heard in the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales.

The central legal issues before the court were whether a sale by a liquidator could be considered bona fide, the extent to which development approval added value to a comparable sale, and the appropriateness of using certain sales as comparables. Additionally, the court had to determine whether the land area rate derived from comparable sales should be discounted for the heritage listing of the lot, and whether a gross floor rate should also be adjusted accordingly. Another issue was whether the volumetric constraints of the lot were adequately reflected in the valuation, and whether a proposed novel method of applying differential rates to different levels of the lot was appropriate.

The court found that the sale by the liquidator was not bona fide due to the circumstances surrounding the sale. The development approval did not add value to the comparable sales as it was not the primary factor in those sales. The court also determined that the sales relied upon were not entirely comparable due to differences in the sites' conditions and constraints. Regarding the heritage listing, the court upheld the discount applied to the land area rate but found that the gross floor rate should also be reduced to account for the heritage listing. The court rejected the owner's proposed novel method, stating that the discount applied by the Valuer-General sufficiently reflected the volumetric constraints of the lot.

The final orders of the court included a reduction in the site value to reflect the volumetric constraints and heritage listing, but not in the manner proposed by the owner. The court upheld the Valuer-General's approach, with specific adjustments to account for the heritage listing. The appeal was partially successful, with the court ordering a reassessment of the site value in accordance with its findings.