Latest land values released

The value of land in NSW skyrocketed by 20% in 2014-15, with the biggest increase in western Sydney.

The value of land in NSW skyrocketed by nearly 20 per cent last financial year, with the biggest increase seen in western Sydney. Mosman recorded the most expensive land value, with the median cost of a residential plot reaching $1.6 million.

Only four other councils cracked the 30 per cent residential land value increase - Canada Bay, The Hills Shire, Randwick and the only local government area outside the Sydney metropolitan basin, Shellharbour.

In the Hunter, prices have risen on the coast but fallen in the local government areas farther inland, where the end of the coal-construction boom has put a lid on the astronomical rents that investors were able to command for their properties just a couple of years ago.

Annual land valuations have been released by the NSW Valuer General - with no change for Gunnedah.

Land values also surged in Parramatta (up 36%) and nearby Holroyd (38%).

According to the Sydney Morning Herald report, the figures released annually by the NSW valuer general do not include the value of homes or buildings on land, but can contribute to the calculation of land taxes and council rates.

A return to a less heated property market in the Upper Hunter means that land values have fallen, sometimes substantially, in that region, with Muswellbrook land down by nearly 13 per cent. Similar but less extreme trends are evident in commercial land valuations.