Official Palm Beach land values barely reflect the real price woes, so stand by for a wave of L&E court objections: Title Tattle

Land valuations in Sydney’s northern beaches – in the Pittwater and Warringah municipalities – rank among the weakest in NSW.

Values fell 3.7% in the year to July in Pittwater and 5.4% in Warringah, according to the latest values issued last week by the New South Wales Valuer-General.

Falls in regional coastal values were not as severe with the decreases in the Tweed, down 3%, and Bega Valley, down 2.3%.

The latest prestige sale in the priciest suburb in Pittwater, Palm Beach, highlights the price stagnation, and suggests the Valuer-General’s annual valuation process isn’t quite in lockstep with the buyer’s mindset.

Shay Lewis-Thorp, a daughter of the late property developer Bernard Lewis and his wife, Toni, recently paid $7.4 million for stockbroker Walter Lewin's four-bedroom Palm Beach house (pictured above).

It had been listed through David Edwards at LJ Hooker.

Set well back on the Ocean Road dress circle – with much of the 1,220-square-metre block being deep level lawn – the property last sold in 2005 for $7.3 million when bought from Barry and Victoria Roberts-Thompson.

Records from NSW Land and Property Information show a $4.08 million unimproved land valuation in 2005, the freehold value of the land excluding any structural improvements.

It was $5.8 million in 2010, a 42% hike on 2005’s valuation, suggesting a continued disconnect between the Valuer-General’s movements in values and actual price sentiment.

One estate agent told Property Observer he expected the strong merchant banking constituency of the Palm Beach peninsula to start challenging their valuations in Land and Environment Court proceedings.

The last successful hearing was when the value of Kalua, a prime beachfront holding, had its valuation reduced in 2006 proceedings over its 2004 valuation by about 14%.

The Lewin land component consisted of 55% of its 2005 sale price, and about 78% of its latest sale price, with Pittwater Council records not indicating any development application within the six-year period.

The latest valuation for the 2011 year is not yet on public records, but Title Tattle will report it when it is on the NSW LPI website.

The land tax on the property, if its not a principal place of residence, based on a $5.8 million three-year averaging would be about $100,000.

Its value in 1984 was $190,000, according to RP Data.

The whispers of the Lewis acquisition were noted by Title Tattle in early December.

It was the second highest price paid at Palm Beach during 2011.

The dearest Palm Beach sale in 2011 was on the beachfront at Iluka Road in May, which briefly brought some hope to the top end market.

The new land valuation notices will be mailed to 877,000 ratepayers across 48 local government areas from today, January 9.

“Some 2.45 million properties were valued as at 1 July 2011 producing a total land value for NSW of around $977 billion,” Valuer-General Philip Western says.

“The 48 councils are those that will review their rates this year based upon the new land values. The valuations are one of the factors councils will use to determine each landowner’s rating liability.

“While it is difficult to generalise across the state, overall land values for the whole of NSW have increased 1.7 % in the 12 months to 30th June 2011.

“This compares with a 5.4% increase for the 12 months to 30th June 2010,” Western notes.