THE Australian Property Institute welcomed the Queensland Government’s decision to reinstate the position of Valuer General.
API QLD president Mike Hefferan also said the government made an excellent decision in appointing Neil Bray.
Hefferan said Bray had a long and very successful career in the public sector, firstly in QLD and more recently as the Valuer General of South Australia and was a recognised expert in this field. He was also QLD president of the API in 1999.
“The reinstatement of the statutory position of Valuer General was an integral component of the current rewriting of the Valuation of Land Act.
“The API had requested this reinstatement for many years and was gratified that the government had recognised the importance of this impartial position upon which all can have continued confidence in the statutory valuation system,” he added.
The Department of Environment and Resource Management Director-General John Bradley under new legislation the Valuer-General’s position would be statutorily independent and would not be subject to direction in issuing valuations to over 1.6 million Queensland’s properties.
“Legislation to be passed later this year will provide statutory independence for the position, that will lead the most significant transformation of Queensland’s valuation system since the Valuation of Land Act commenced in 1944,” Bradley said.
The introduction of an independent Valuer-General is one a number of reforms aimed at aligning Queensland’s valuations system with other jurisdictions, in particular the introduction of site value for non-rural land. Other reforms include establishing an expert peer review process, benchmarking performance standards against national best practice and simplifying the valuations objections process.
Propertyreview.com.au
