CGT property valuation in Melbourne and across Victoria

Property across Melbourne and regional Victoria

Metropolitan Melbourne takes in councils from the City of Melbourne, Yarra, Port Phillip and Stonnington in the inner suburbs, through Boroondara and Monash in the east, to growth areas such as Wyndham, Casey, Hume and Whittlesea. We value houses, units, townhouses and vacant land in all of them for capital gains tax, and in Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and the rest of Victoria.

A home in Boroondara and one in Wyndham are valued from quite different evidence, because each is compared with sales of comparable homes close by. For a past date, those are the sales from around that date, not today’s.

Your rates notice is not a CGT valuation

Every property in Victoria is valued each year by the Valuer-General Victoria for council rates and land tax, with values set as at 1 January, and the State Revenue Office uses the site value for land tax. Those values come from one valuation of the whole state at a set date. They are not prepared for capital gains tax, and 1 January may be nowhere near the date your accountant gives you.

Apartments and owners corporations

For an apartment or townhouse in an owners corporation, the valuer considers the lot, any car space or storage on the title, the building and sales of comparable lots nearby. Where a building was new at your date, or most sales in it were off the plan, there can be little resale evidence, and a valuer would normally say so in the report.

CGT situations for Victorian property

• An inherited home. Probate in Victoria is granted by the Supreme Court of Victoria. Where the tax rules use market value at the date of death, the home is valued as it was on that day, whenever the report is prepared. See inherited property.
• A former home now rented. The value is at the day the home was first rented out, from sales around that date. Your accountant confirms whether that rule applies and which date to use. See home that became a rental.
• A transfer to family. For capital gains tax, a gift or a sale to someone you are not dealing with at arm’s length (often a family member) uses market value on the date of the transfer. Stamp duty on these transfers is assessed separately by each state or territory revenue office: in Victoria that is land transfer duty, administered by the State Revenue Office Victoria. See family transfers.
• A holiday house held at 30 June 2027. From 1 July 2027 the 50 per cent CGT discount is generally replaced, and gains built up before then keep it. A holiday house on the Bellarine or the Surf Coast owned for years is the kind of property where that split matters. A valuation at 30 June 2027 is one way to fix the value; the law also allows for a government-set apportioning method as an alternative, but it has not been finalised yet. See 30 June 2027 valuations.
• Any other past date. See retrospective valuations.

Rural property and water shares

Farms, rural blocks and development sites are quoted before anything is booked. In northern Victoria’s irrigation districts, certain water entitlements were separated from land on 1 July 2007, so a valuation of an irrigated property should state whether any water entitlements are included.

Fees and how a request works

Standard houses, units, townhouses and vacant lots have fixed fees. Commercial, rural and development property, and anything likely to be worth more than $3 million, is quoted before anything is booked. Transfers to family are quoted too.

Start with the property address, the reason for the valuation and the date your accountant gives you. We confirm the valuer, the fee and the timing in writing, and nothing is booked or charged until you accept. The finished report is a PDF setting out the value, the comparable sales and the method, reviewed and signed by a property valuer.

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