INSIGHT · DEVELOPMENT & REPORTING

Two figures called land value:
one is defined in an Act,
the other is a method.

4 November 2026

Queensland's Land Valuation Act 2010 defines the land value on a rates notice down to whether clearing vegetation counts as an improvement. Residual land value, the figure a development feasibility turns on, is not defined in that Act or in any public Australian standard we could reach on 4 November 2026. Both get written in a model, a board paper and a file note as "land value". Only one of them has a text you can quote back.

Stylised isometric illustration of a land parcel as two stacked translucent layers, the lower one lit, with a measuring bar beside them

Analysed 4 November 2026 · Land Valuation Act 2010 (Qld), in force version, chapter 2, read through the Queensland legislation register · Australian Property Institute standards page and IVSC International Valuation Standards page, both read and found not to publish a residual land value definition · all pages read 4 November 2026.

Key takeaways

The statutory figure is defined in words you can quote: Land Valuation Act 2010 (Qld) s 7: "The value of land is as follows... (a) for non-rural land-its site value; (b) for rural land-its unimproved value." Site value of improved land, under s 19, "is its expected realisation under a bona fide sale assuming all non-site improvements for the land had not been made."
Even the sale behind it is defined: Section 18 sets three "bona fide sale tests": "a willing, but not anxious, buyer and seller"; "a reasonable period within which to negotiate the sale"; and "that the property was reasonably exposed to the market". A figure produced on those assumptions is not a figure produced on a programme's assumptions.
So is what counts as an improvement: Section 19 turns on the line between site and non-site improvements, and the Act lists what site improvements are, including "clearing vegetation on the land", "picking up and removing stones", "improving soil fertility or soil structure" and restoring the surface "by filling, grading or levelling".
We could not find a public definition of residual land value: The Australian Property Institute's standards page, read 4 November 2026, contains no occurrence of "residual". The IVSC page for the International Valuation Standards is a publication listing and contains none either. Neither result means no definition exists; it means neither body published one at an address we could read.
The two answer different questions: The statutory figure answers what the land would realise if sold, with the non-site improvements notionally removed. A residual calculation answers what a specific scheme could afford to pay for the site and still return its target. One is about the land; the other is about a proposal.
We would never store a land figure without its basis: Our system-design recommendation: every land figure carries the definition that produced it, the date it applies to, and the document it came from. A number labelled only "land value" cannot be reconciled with another one later.

What the Act actually
defines, clause by clause.

Chapter 2 of the Land Valuation Act 2010 (Qld) builds the figure up from parts, each with its own section. Quoted as read on 4 November 2026.

Read s 19 slowly. The site value of a block with a house on it is what it would realise assuming the house had not been built. That is a deliberate fiction, defined as such, and it is the number a rates notice carries. It is not an estimate of what the property would sell for.

Section	What it settles	Quoted
s 7	Which basis applies	"for non-rural land-its site value; (b) for rural land-its unimproved value"
s 16	The interest valued	"For deciding the value of land, all land is taken to be granted in fee simple."
s 17	What realisation means	"the capital sum that its unencumbered estate in fee simple might be expected to realise if that estate were negotiated for sale as a bona fide sale"
s 17(2)	What unencumbered means	"unencumbered by any lease, agreement for lease, mortgage or other charge"
s 18(1)	The three sale tests	"a willing, but not anxious, buyer and seller"; "a reasonable period within which to negotiate the sale"; "that the property was reasonably exposed to the market"
s 18(2)	What makes terms reasonable	regard must be had to "the land's location and nature" and "the state of the market for land of the same type"
s 19(1)	Site value of improved land	"its expected realisation under a bona fide sale assuming all non-site improvements for the land had not been made"
s 20	How added value is analysed	"The weighted bond rate must be used to analyse the added value of" the site and non-site improvements involved in the sale

Where the line between
improvements is drawn.

Because s 19 removes non-site improvements and keeps site improvements, the whole figure depends on which is which. The Act lists site improvements rather than leaving it to practice. Quoted from the definition:

A development feasibility does not use this line at all. It carries the actual cost of remediation, earthworks and services as costs, at the price they will be paid, in the period they will be paid. The statutory figure asks a different question of the same dirt, and the answers are not comparable even when both are current.

clearing vegetation on the land: Work that prepares the ground stays in the figure.
picking up and removing stones: Named individually, which is how precise the drafting is.
improving soil fertility or soil structure: Condition of the ground, not what sits on it.
works to manage or remedy contamination: Where the land "was contaminated land as defined under the Environmental Protection Act 1994". Remediation is a site improvement, so it is not notionally removed.
restoring, rehabilitating or improving its surface by filling, grading or levelling: With the Act excepting irrigation and conservation works from that limb as published.

What we looked for,
and did not find.

The brief for this reading assumed a professional body would publish a definition of residual land value. Two were checked on 4 November 2026 and neither did, at the addresses read.

This is a negative finding and it is reported as one. It does not establish that neither body defines the term; valuation standards are commonly distributed as paid publications or to members, and we did not buy or join anything. What it establishes is narrower and still useful: a practitioner looking for an authoritative public definition on 4 November 2026 would not have found one at either body's own standards address.

Source	What was read	Result
Australian Property Institute, standards page	api.org.au/standards/, HTTP 200, about 86,000 characters of text	No occurrence of "residual" or "hypothetical development". The page is largely member and committee material.
IVSC, International Valuation Standards page	ivsc.org, reached by redirect from the standards address, HTTP 200, about 6,500 characters	A publication listing. No occurrence of "residual", "land value" or "feasibility".

Why the gap matters
when the number moves.

A residual calculation is a subtraction: the value of the completed scheme, less every cost of producing it, less the return the money requires, leaves what the land can be worth to that scheme. Each of those terms is an estimate made on a date, and none of them is fixed by any instrument.

The output is a property of the scheme, not of the land: Change the yield, the mix or the programme and the residual moves without a square metre of the site changing. Two developers can produce two defensible residuals for one block on the same day.
It is the most sensitive figure in the model: It is the balancing item. Everything that is wrong anywhere else in the feasibility arrives here, which is why a residual quoted without its assumptions is not a figure at all.
And it is routinely compared with a number computed on other rules: The statutory site value on a rates notice is computed under s 19 with non-site improvements notionally removed, as at a valuation date set by the Act's own process. Reading one against the other as a check is comparing two different questions.
No instrument tells you which one a document means: A board paper that says "land value $X" has not said which. The only thing that resolves it is a record of the basis, kept with the number.

Feasibility systems · A suburb figure has a boundary version

What we would put in a system

The point of contact is the moment any land figure enters a record that someone will later rely on.

Where agents help is narrow. A document intelligence agent can read an incoming valuation, notice or model export, extract which basis it states, the effective date and the issuing document, and draft the record. A reporting agent can draft the list of decisions that cited a land figure whose basis was never recorded. A person decides which basis the question needs. No agent decides what land is worth, whether a valuation is correct, or whether a scheme is viable. Those are matters for the valuer, the developer and your advisers.

Field	Why it is load-bearing
Which basis produced the figure	Statutory site value, statutory unimproved value, a market appraisal or a scheme residual. These are four different questions and they are all written "land value".
The instrument or method, named	For a statutory figure, the Act and the section. For a residual, the model and its version. A basis without a source cannot be re-derived.
The date the figure applies to, separate from the date it was received	A statutory valuation has an effective date set by process. A residual has the date its inputs were true. Neither is the date the email arrived.
For a residual: the scheme it assumes	Yield, mix, programme and target return. Without them the number belongs to no proposal and cannot be audited.
For a statutory figure: whether it is site or unimproved value	Section 7 makes this turn on whether the land is rural, which is itself defined by zoning under sections 8 to 11.
What the figure was used to decide	A land value that fed an offer and one that fed a rates objection have different consequences when either is later found wrong.

Development management

Questions worth asking
of your own numbers

For a developer: when a feasibility says the land is worth $X, can you produce the scheme that number assumes?

A residual is the balancing item of one proposal. Without the yield, mix, programme and target return it belongs to no proposal, and a later reviewer cannot tell whether it was wrong or whether the scheme changed.

For a development manager: does your model distinguish the statutory site value from an appraisal of what the site would sell for?

Under s 19 the statutory figure assumes all non-site improvements had not been made. On an improved site those are different numbers by construction, not by error.

For a finance or commercial manager: for every land figure in your reporting, is the basis stored beside it?

If the basis lives in the head of whoever built the model, the figure cannot be reconciled with a valuation, a rates notice or another model.

For anyone objecting to a valuation: do you know whether the land is rural or non-rural for the Act's purposes?

Section 7 makes the basis turn on that, and sections 8 to 11 define it by reference to zoning under a planning scheme. The two bases are not interchangeable.

For a board: when two land figures for one site disagree, is that a dispute or a definition?

Often it is a definition. The useful first question is not which is right but which question each was answering.

Questions people ask
about residual land value

How is residual land value calculated?

As a subtraction: the value of the completed development, less the costs of producing it, less the return required on the money, leaves the residual available for the land. We found no public Australian standard at the addresses read on 4 November 2026 that fixes the terms, so the arrangement of them is a matter of practice rather than of a definition we can quote.

Is residual land value the same as the land value on my rates notice?

No. In Queensland the rates figure is the statutory value under the Land Valuation Act 2010: for non-rural land its site value, which s 19 defines as its expected realisation under a bona fide sale "assuming all non-site improvements for the land had not been made". A residual is what a particular scheme could afford to pay. They answer different questions.

What is site value?

Under s 19 of the Land Valuation Act 2010 (Qld), for improved land it is "its expected realisation under a bona fide sale assuming all non-site improvements for the land had not been made". Section 17 defines expected realisation and s 18 defines the bona fide sale, including that the buyer and seller are "willing, but not anxious".

What counts as a site improvement?

The Act lists them, including clearing vegetation, picking up and removing stones, improving soil fertility or structure, works to manage or remedy contamination of land contaminated as defined under the Environmental Protection Act 1994, and restoring the surface by filling, grading or levelling. Site improvements stay in the figure; non-site improvements are notionally removed.

Who defines residual land value in Australia?

We looked at the Australian Property Institute's standards page and the IVSC's International Valuation Standards page on 4 November 2026 and neither published a definition at those addresses. That is a negative finding about two pages on one day, not a statement that no definition exists anywhere.

What this analysis
does and does not show.

As read on 4 November 2026

Statutory basis: Land Valuation Act 2010 (Qld) s 7: site value for non-rural land, unimproved value for rural land
Site value of improved land: s 19: expected realisation under a bona fide sale assuming all non-site improvements had not been made
Expected realisation: s 17: the capital sum the unencumbered fee simple might be expected to realise
Bona fide sale tests: s 18: willing but not anxious parties; a reasonable period to negotiate; reasonably exposed to the market
Site improvements: Listed in the Act, including clearing, stone removal, soil work, contamination remediation and surface works
Residual land value: No definition found on the API standards page or the IVSC standards page

This reading covers Queensland only. Each state and territory has its own valuation legislation with its own bases and its own defined terms, and we did not read them. The NSW, South Australian and Victorian sources we tried were either blocked or returned an index page without the provisions; nothing here rests on them.
The negative finding about residual land value is about two web pages on one day. Valuation standards are commonly distributed as paid or member publications, and we did not purchase or join anything. It does not establish that no professional definition exists.
Quotations from the Act are from the in force version as read on 4 November 2026 through the Queensland legislation register. Legislation changes, and a quotation is only as current as its read date.
Nothing here is valuation, legal, tax or investment advice. It does not state what any land is worth, whether any valuation is correct, whether any objection would succeed, or whether any scheme is viable.
The description of how a residual calculation is arranged is a general account of practice, not a quotation from any standard, precisely because we found none to quote.

What to watch next

Two things a reader can check rather than take from us.

Whether either body publishes a definition openly later: The API standards page and the IVSC standards page are both public addresses. If a definition appears at either, the negative finding in section 03 stops being true, and the date of this reading is what tells you to look again.
Your own state's basis: Section 7 of the Queensland Act splits site value from unimproved value on whether land is rural. Other jurisdictions draw their lines differently and use different defined terms. A business operating across borders holds figures computed on bases it has not compared.

Bring us one land figure
and the decision it fed.

Send us a land value from a model, a valuation or a notice, and tell us what it was used to decide. We will show you which basis it is on, what a record of that basis would have held, and what it can and cannot be compared with.

This article is general information about published Queensland legislation and about how land figures are recorded. It is not valuation, legal, tax or investment advice. It does not value any land, assess any valuation or appraise any development. It covers Queensland only. All pages are as read on 4 November 2026 and can change.

Send us the figure · Feasibility systems

Sources

Suggested citation: Land Valuation Act 2010 (Qld) chapter 2, as read 4 November 2026, with negative findings recorded against the API and IVSC standards pages on the same date. No figure in this reading is derived by us.

Two figures called land value: one is defined in an Act, the other is a method.