CGT property valuation in Canberra and the ACT

Valuing a home on a Crown lease

Land in the ACT is leasehold. A home sits on a Crown lease, a residential lease is usually granted for 99 years, and the lease’s purpose clause sets out what the land may be used for. In practice, holding a Crown lease is owning the property, and homes are bought and sold with the lease.

So a Canberra home or vacant block is valued for capital gains tax from sales of comparable properties on similar leases, around your date. The valuer also reads the purpose clause, because it limits what the land can be used for. If the lease has been varied since your date, for example to allow another dwelling, tell us when you request: for a past date, the property is valued as it was then.

From Gungahlin to Tuggeranong

We value across Canberra, from Gungahlin and Belconnen in the north to Woden, Weston Creek, Tuggeranong and the newer suburbs of the Molonglo Valley, and elsewhere in the ACT. A home in an established suburb and one in a newer estate rest on different sales evidence, so each is compared with sales of comparable homes close by.

Your rates notice shows an averaged land value

In the ACT, rates notices are issued by the ACT Revenue Office, and rates are based on the average unimproved value of the land over five years. That figure leaves out the home and is averaged over several years, so it is not what the property would have sold for on the date your accountant gives you.

CGT situations for ACT property

• A home first rented out. If you first rented out your Canberra home after 20 August 1996, and a later sale would only be partly exempt, you are generally treated as having bought it that day, at its market value then. You may be able to keep treating it as your home for up to six years while it is rented, so your accountant confirms the date. See home that became a rental.
• Inherited property. Probate in the ACT is granted by the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. Where the tax rules use market value at the date of death, the valuation is at that date, however long probate takes. See inherited property.
• A transfer to family. Stamp duty on these transfers is assessed separately by each state or territory revenue office: in the ACT that is conveyance duty, administered by the ACT Revenue Office. For capital gains tax, a transfer to someone you are not dealing with at arm’s length (often a family member) uses market value on the date it happens. See family transfers.
• Past dates and 30 June 2027. We value at past dates through a retrospective valuation. A value at 30 June 2027 may help split a later gain between the old and new CGT rules; the law also allows for a government-set apportioning method as an alternative, but it has not been finalised yet. That valuation is prepared after the day, and registering now is free.

Fees for Canberra property

Commercial, rural and development property, and anything likely to be worth more than $3 million, is quoted before anything is booked. So is property that is not a house, unit, townhouse or vacant block, and every transfer to family.

What happens after you ask

1. Request online with the address, why the value matters and the date your accountant gives you.
2. You get the valuer’s name, the fee and the timing in writing, and it stays a request, with nothing booked or charged, until you accept.
3. The valuer prepares the report from sales evidence around your date and the records you provide, including the lease and its purpose clause.
4. You receive the signed PDF report by email, ready for your accountant.

Outside the ACT we also value in Sydney and NSW, Melbourne and Victoria and Darwin and the Northern Territory.