The Property Council recently met with the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, Hon Stephen Robertson (one of the Beattie Government’s talented, up and coming Ministers) to discuss the unimproved valuation system in Queensland.
The system’s volatility impacts upon the property industry making it difficult for property owners and managers to plan for variations in land tax and rates, and tenants to estimate expected outgoings.
Comparisons of increases in statutory charges and controllable outgoings over a five year period indicating disproportionate increases in charges based upon UCV's have previously been reported by the Property Council.
At the request of the Minister this comparison was also conducted on a 10 year basis using the Property Council's Benchmarks Survey of Operating Costs.
This long term comparison similarly shows a greater increase in statutory charges with the trendlines indicating that those charges are increasing at a faster rate than controllable outgoings in 9,000 to 18,000 sqm office buildings in the Brisbane CBD.
Following the meeting with the Minister, the Property Council is preparing a detailed proposal of alternative methods of assessing annual land tax increases, including linking it to an index such as CPI or GSP.
It is hoped that such a system would reduce the apparent random nature of current valuations where a number of buildings in the Brisbane CBD increased by almost 200% while buildings next door or one block away had no change made to their previous valuation.
Members are encouraged to share knowledge of alternative systems of calculating land based taxes which may assist in the preparation of the Property Council's proposal.
Contact:
Charlotte Byrne, 07 3229 0666
