land tax on a unit??

Peach

Land tax is charged on all property holdings subject to certain thresholds.

These may include the occupancy i.e whether you hold it as a principal place of residence, investment etc, the name or entity in which the property is held. the State in which the property is held and the number of properties held in your portfolio.

In a nutshell it will vary from owner to owner.

I dont think it is a matter of the Landlord using the rental increase as an excuse on his increased land tax however with the current rental climate being what it is a landlord can increase the rent without any excuse and long as this is considered a fair increase the tenant has 2 choices.

Dear Peach,
i do understand your frustrations, are you in Sydney? I got hit with a big land tax bill, because the NSW government overvalues to raise revenue. So the value of the land that is part of the complex for my studio apartment is actually SUBSTANTIALLY GREATER than what I can sell the studio for, belivee it or not. I fought it all the way with the valuer's department, saying how about they buy it if that is land value only and they can get a unit with it for the same price.  Now that it is a landlord's market out there and the landlord can raise the rent to try and recoup the cost (rather than say cancelling his annual holiday or car, which is what some of us were doing a few years ago) of course they will do that, and you will end up paying it, and if not you, then someone else. The unit will only ever be worth market value, so if this raises rent above that why not move to somewhere cheaper.

In regards to my earlier comment re unfair land tax, my unit was a studio apartment, and the land value was increased by 33% in one year. When I bought I considered the land value, and figured I would be under thethreshold for years to come, however it is impossible dealing with the greedy NSW state government and their totally unreasonable valluations. Every owner in the block protested, as our block of land was valued at close to 3 million for land tax, yet the block of land next door, same size, had sold for under 1 million in the same period.  There is no way we could have sold our land for that value. Yet we paid the tax based on that. All I'm trying to say is with the land tax there seems to be no reason applied in the valuation process, and as such maybe even Peachy's  landlord has been caught out as well. Something worth asking in that case is for a copy of the valuation. I have a friend renting in Manly in Sydney, she had a similar situation, her rent went up by $50 twice in a couple of months. The lanldord actually provided her with a copy of the land tax to show her that he was struggling himself, and the landtax had increased by some phenomenal amount in the space of a year, and it was obvious that it would be some strugge to come up with another $10,000 or so compared to the previous year. And he asked her if she was prepared to help with increased rent, and otherwise he would sell the property. they actually had a coffee together and discussed it, and she choose to stay on, and he will sell when she does move out.

Zoe,
How many units are in the complex of you IP?

I own an IP apartment in Stanmore and the Gross Land value is $50,140. There are 24 units in the complex, therefore I am assuming that the overall land value is $50,140 x 24 units which totals approx $1,203,000. Not sure if this is correct as each of the apartments may have a different overall land value.

cheers
Superhoops

Zoe,
Based on your figures your unit has a Gross Land Value of $250K. Therefore if you had this as your only IP then you would not be up for any land tax as it is below the $359K threshold. However, I am assuming that you have at least a couple of IP's that push your combined land values above the $359K threshold. I am just trying to get around the Land Tax issue so forgive me if I am wrong – thus back on Peachy's OP there probably isn't any land tax per se on the unit that Peachy is renting, however as their landlord may have more than one IP it is the combined total "that has increased that landlords land tax" – whilst rental increases are not unreasonable, it is deceptive conduct in a way for the landlord to suggest that the increase in rent is due to land tax on that unit.

Superhoops

ZJ, LV does not reflect values it is used for statory ratings puposes. They do not go up by "30% each year" this is BS! The VG undertakes its valuation cycle on a 3 year basis (or 4 years in rural districts) with minor adjustments annually. If you can cite the addresses of 2 such sites which have increased at this rate I'll buy you a beer (and a hanky). Land tax is then levied on the average LV for the previous 3 years (2 years of which are not published but can be found on the OSR website).

If you are forced to sell as you are so precariously financed – should you not take a less risky approach to investment if you cannot afford a $5k land tax bill (after all it is tax deductible)?