Tucked in with the mailman’s delivery of Easter cards, this year’s land valuation notices held a sting for plenty of inner Brisbane property owners. These are the official numbers the state government assigns to every piece of real estate, and they’re used to work out how much you’ll pay in Council rates and, for a large number of property owners, land tax.

In South Brisbane we’ve seen a number of jumps over 50% in just one year, with one Peel Street property (Soho Apartments) rocketing 74%. Across the whole city we’re told the rise was a to-be-expected 16%, but the department confound us each year with their process. The “unimproved capital value” (see your UCV on your BCC rates notice) is supposed to be based on the notional value your land would be worth with no building, fences, levelling etc. So to determine this they look for recent sales in your area of vacant or “lightly improved” properties and work back from there. If anyone’s seen any vacant land selling around the inner city let us know…

If you own an apartment you won’t get the notice as it goes direct to the body corp. But you will get the rates and land tax increases that result. If you own at Aurora Tower or Oxygen Apartments your taxable value just leapt 29%; Que and Greenwich at South Brisbane were up 53%. Might be worth asking your committee if they plan to appeal the amount?

Land tax kicks in as soon as you own property worth a combined $600,000 (or $350,000 if held in a company name), so for many inner city suburbs that’s just one property! You don’t have to be a wealthy old landlord to be copping this state tax.

The outcome? Higher costs of owning real estate and higher rents for tenants.