The comparable sales method of land valuation requires a sufficient sample of comparable sales analysed collectively and individually; it is an error to base a valuation on a single 'most important' comparable sale identified by excluding all others. A sale to an adjoining owner must be carefully analysed to determine whether the price reflects special value, and the party relying on such a sale bears the burden of satisfying themselves it does not. Expert valuers must reveal as far as possible the process of reasoning actually employed from their basket of sales to their opinion on value, though they need not quantify every adjustment. Section 63(e) of the Public Works Act 1902 (WA) applies where the acquiring authority does not receive rents or profits, even if the dispossessed owner received revenue after the date of taking.
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