Thanks a million - spa resorts leased at rates anyone can afford: "The NSW Department of Lands manages the land, charging rent on its unimproved value, but not its contents. So a camping ground next to a resort, on the same amount of taxpayer-owned land, would pay the same rent."

The above is an elementary confusion, which mars otherwise good investigative reporting. The value of land consists precisely in its "unimproved value", more recently known as "site value", and not its "contents", assuming this is meant to be the improvements (buildings, facilities etc). For the government (in this case the public, who are the owners of the land) to get the full return to their ownership, it is the true and current unimproved value (both capital and annual) that must be assessed.

Thanks a million - spa resorts leased at rates anyone can afford: "The NSW Department of Lands manages the land, charging rent on its unimproved value, but not its contents. So a camping ground next to a resort, on the same amount of taxpayer-owned land, would pay the same rent."

The above is an elementary confusion, which mars otherwise good investigative reporting. The value of land consists precisely in its "unimproved value", more recently known as "site value", and not its "contents", assuming this is meant to be the improvements (buildings, facilities etc). For the government (in this case the public, who are the owners of the land) to get the full return to their ownership, it is the true and current unimproved value (both capital and annual) that must be assessed.