Land restricted by planning controls to public infrastructure use (such as railway stations, hospitals, schools) is not necessarily of nil site value for land tax purposes merely because the permitted use is commercially unviable. The potentiality of the land to the State as sole hypothetical purchaser must be taken into account, and the factor in s 5A(3)(f) of the Valuation of Land Act 1960 (capacity to yield monetary return) cannot alone override all other relevant considerations. A judicial valuer may make adjustments to expert evidence using the direct comparison method, treating comparable sales as benchmarks, without impermissibly acting as an expert.
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