Unaccepted offers to purchase land are not admissible as direct evidence of market value, but may be admissible for limited purposes including establishing the existence of a purchaser willing to pay above market value, the weakness of market demand, or that later sales were not forced sales. Before any weight can be given to such evidence, the court must be satisfied the offer was genuine. The WASCA preferred the [name withheld] Holdings approach over MMAL Rentals on the scope of the [name withheld] principle. Where a plaintiff claims loss based on the difference between contract price and market value, the onus lies on the plaintiff to prove market value by admissible evidence, and failure to call valuation evidence when it could have been called is fatal to the claim.
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