"Ombudsman probes land valuation system in NSW"

ABC News Online, 26 February 2005

The New South Wales Opposition is calling for land valuations to be conducted independently of the State Government.

The State Ombudsman is investigating the methods the Valuer-General uses to work out the value of land, as well as the handling of objections.

NSW Opposition Leader John Brogden says land values are going up but property values are going down.

He says valuations are important to set land tax and rate levels and the current system is out of touch.

"At the very same time that the property market in New South Wales has at least plateaued, if not dropped, people are getting land valuations to tell them that their land is, in some cases, more than doubled in value," he said.

"It's simply not consistent with market expectations.

"As a consequence the only option for the Government is to have an independent valuation system."

NSW Valuer-General Phillip Weston says he welcomes the investigation and that he is happy to help with the inquiry.

"I actually welcome that investigation - it will provide an independent point of view in terms of how we go about the valuation and the general methodology and I'll be looking very closely at what comes out of that and what improvements if any, that we can actually make to the valuation system," he said.

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