Apartment Giant Meriton Loses $63m Valuation Case

Meriton has failed in its court bid to slash the official land valuation of a Lane Cove development site as land values across Greater Sydney skyrocket into the trillions of dollars.

The prolific apartment developer’s Karimbla Properties (No. 35) vehicle had objected to the Valuer General of New South Wales’ valuation of its 150 Epping Road site at Lane Cove West, 11km north of Sydney CBD.

The site is home to Meriton’s Arise project, a five-building development that includes retail spaces, childcare and 367 apartments.

The developer argued that the subject land value, determined by the Valuer General as being $63.84 million, was inflated, prompting Meriton to escalate the matter to the NSW Land and Environment Court. 

Meriton claimed that the land value of the 18,310sq m site should be $52 million plus land improvements, with which the Valuer General previously disagreed. 

Having been previously zoned for industrial uses, both parties agreed the residential approval dramatically increased the site’s underlying value, and the court was required to assess the land according to its “highest and best use”.

Valuation battle centres on improvements

The dispute underscored the complexity and subjectivity of land valuation in NSW, which considers everything from zoning and local amenity to market evidence, transport access and comparable sales.

The parties had already agreed that the cost of land improvements was $8.79 million, but clashed over how those improvements should be integrated into the valuation formula. 

Meriton argued that, despite its residential approval, the location was disadvantaged because the site is “isolated” from established residential areas, diminishing its desirability.

But the court disagreed, accepting the Valuer General’s valuation of $1805 per sq m of gross floor area.

▲ Meriton's Lane Cove development on Epping Road was completed in 2017.

The court noted that the Valuer General’s methodology used was “more transparent” and aligned with the agreed valuation method.

It said that it needed to stick to an agreed methodology to uphold the “integrity of the valuation process”, rather than a “holistic assessment of location and access”. 

Although the court criticised the Valuer General’s handling of land-improvement values—saying such improvements should be accounted for when calculating land value—it found that even applying the lower end of Meriton’s own improvement estimates produced a valuation higher than the official figure.

Meriton’s appeal was dismissed.

NSW land values skyrocket

The decision came as the NSW Valuer General this week released the total land values for Greater Sydney. 

As of July 1, 2025 land values had grown across Greater Sydney in the past 12 months by $87.9 billion. 

The total land value for Greater Sydney experienced a combined increase of 4.5 per cent across all property types, rising from $1.9 trillion at July 1 2024 to $2 trillion at July 1 2025.

Residential land had the biggest increase—4.7 per cent across 1.12 million properties to $1.7 trillion. 

Across all of NSW, land values increased by 3.6 per cent to $3.09 trillion.

The new land values will be used by Revenue NSW to calculate land tax.