Harland Still Keeping Carisbrook Valuation Secret

In a reply to a Letter to the ODT Editor by Dick Donaldson, Dunedin City Council chief executive said:

Unless the new council decides to do something different following the public consultation earlier this year, its annual plan indicates that in 2011-12 it intends selling Carisbrook. If the Council
confirms its decision to sell after the ORFU has vacated the site, it will want to obtain the best price it can get.
Disclosure of a current valuation (a three-year-old rating valuation may not be relevant) during the selling process would prejudice the council’s ability to secure the best price. Those who have bought and sold their own homes will understand the principle. Selling the property is a commercial transaction — disclosure of a valuation would undermine the council’s negotiating position, potentially imposing extra costs on ratepayers. In the end, of course, the value will be what the market says it is worth.

This is nonsense: if a homeowner has a good valuation, then he is will advertise it to try and obtain this price. I am sure the the DCC would be more than happy to get back the $7 million that we have paid for the Carisbrook properties.

But it seems the valuation is conditional. Ex-mayor Chin described it as a:

valuation of the current and future values across a range of land uses

I take this to mean:

it might be worth this much so time in the future if the zoning was changed.