It is the prized harbourside block in Sydney best known for the striking brutalist building that sits atop it.
But just how much the land occupied by the Sirius building in the Rocks is worth has been at the centre of a multimillion-dollar tussle between the NSW Valuer General and a property developer.
The redeveloped Sirius building at the Rocks.Credit: Wolter Peeters
The Berejiklian government sold the former public housing block for $150 million in 2019 to private investment firm JDH Capital, led by former Macquarie banker Jean-Dominique Huynh.
The $150 million redevelopment, completed this year, boasts 76 high-end apartments, 60 of which were sold in 2021 for a reported $405 million. The project has been divisive because of the sell-off of social housing.
NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson described the sale this year as a “dud deal” and said Sydney needed more opportunities for people to live in public housing “everywhere in our city”.
But the three-year renovation and restoration by award-winning architects BVN also won plaudits.
The latest chapter in the history of the storied building was a fight over the valuation of the land on which the apartments are built. That valuation, which excludes the building, is used to calculate land tax.
“The subject land is irregular in shape, though may best be described as triangular,” NSW Land and Environment Court Acting Commissioner Michael Davidson said in a decision this month.
“The natural topography of the land slopes down in an easterly direction towards the harbour waters though the land has been excavated and terraced to accommodate the existing building improvements upon the land.”
$155 million valuation
The chief commissioner of state revenue issued land tax assessments in February 2023 and January this year to Sirius Developments Pty Limited, the corporate trustee that owns the land.
Those assessments revealed the NSW Valuer General had valued the 3671-square metre block at $155 million for the 2023 valuing year, and between $105 million and $148 million in the preceding three years.
The company lodged objections to all four valuations. The Valuer General ultimately issued lower determinations for the three most recent years, including slashing the $155 million figure to $131 million.
The appeal
The company was dissatisfied with that outcome and filed appeals in the NSW Land and Environment Court.
It contended for a valuation of “no more than” about $91 million for 2023. The Valuer General put the figure at $194 million.
$88.4 million agreement
However, the parties reached an agreement on all four valuations after a conciliation conference on November 8. This included a valuation of $88.4 million for 2023.
The acting commissioner said he was required to “dispose of the proceedings in accordance with the parties’ decision” if it was “a decision that the court could have made in the proper exercise of its functions”. He was satisfied this was the case.
He made orders amending the land valuations to $88.4 million last year, and between $86.3 million and $95.2 million in the preceding three years. This will lower the landowner’s tax bill.
HARBOURSIDE PRIZE
The original and amended NSW Valuer-General land valuations for the block on which the Sirius building sits:
- 2023: $155 million, reduced to $88.4 million
- 2022: $148 million, reduced to $95.1 million
- 2021: $130 million, reduced to $90.6 million
- 2020: $105 million, reduced to $86.3 million
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