Gerry Harvey wins court fight over Qld Government land value at Gympie
Australian billionaire Gerry Harvey has gone to court with the Valuer-General over the ‘excessive’ value it placed on an industrial block of land on the outskirts of Gympie.
Police & Courts
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Businessman Gerry Harvey has won a court battle against the Queensland Valuer-General with the state Land Court finding the 2020 valuation of an industrial block of land in Gympie was “infected with error”.
Calardu Gympie Pty Ltd challenged the Valuer-General in court over an October 2022 finding the property in an industrial hub in the city less than two hours north of Brisbane, was valued at $1.35 million.
The 1.2ha block on Edwin Campion Dr is home to a Harvey Norman customer collection point warehouse, and not far from the retail chain’s main Gympie store.
Mr Harvey is a director and secretary of Calardu Gympie.
The Land Court’s decision, published online, revealed the company initially objected to the valuation, but in September 2023 the state government stood by the figure.
The company then took the matter to court.
It argued the Valuer-General’s figure was “excessive”, not supported by sales evidence, and based on “fundamentally erroneous” methods.
A third party valuer for Calardu Gympie contended the actual value of the land should have been $1.08 million, the court heard.
This was higher than an original $880,000 value contended by Calardu Gympie.
Land Court member William Isdale found the matter revolved around two historic sales near the block, one nearby on Edwin Campion Dr and another on the Old Bruce Hwy.
Emails tendered to the court revealed the Edwin Campion Dr block was originally bought in October 2021 with plans to open a Spotlight outlet on it.
Increased construction costs and Spotlight’s refusal to pay an increased rent price made the plan unviable, the court heard.
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Mr Isdale found that although Calardu Gympie’s valuer reached a figure of $300 per sqm regarding this block – and that was a key part of reaching his final proposed value of $90 per sqm – the $300 figure was ultimately a “useless and irrelevant opinion of someone else”.
This caused a series of errors that compounded to “impugn” the reliability of Calardu Gympie’s final finding and “contaminate” the data.
However, Mr Isdale found the Valuer-General’s expert made his own error in failing to give sufficient reason to exclude the July 2020 sale of the Old Bruce Highway block from his calculations.
Mr Isdale said the Valuer-General’s expert said four other sales showed “values have increased” whereas Calardu Gympie’s expert submitted the block was comparable and “there are no sales of this size or use to show an increase in the market” since it was done.
The court rejected any allegation of “partisanship” against the Calardu Gympie valuer.
As a result of these dual errors, the court said it was unable to determine the correct value of the land and asked the two parties to each make further submissions on the matter.
The original valuation of $1.35 million was dismissed but a new agreed value is yet to be determined.
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