21 Nov 2017

Auckland Council explains property valuations, rates

From Morning Report, 8:47 am on 21 November 2017

Auckland Council's head of rates Debbie Acott told Morning Report the average value increase for Auckland residential properties is 46 percent.

"If you've got a revaluation that's gone up more than 46 percent, you may receive a rates increase next year.

"But if you're at that average of 46 percent, your rates won't be impacted by the revaluation at all. If your valuation has gone up at less than 46 percent, you may even see a decrease."

She said Auckland Council was "absolutely not" getting more money from revaluations.

"The Budget stays the same. If you think of the Budget like a pie … that pie doesn't get any bigger because of revaluation. Your revaluation just determines the portion of the pie that you're going to pay."

She said high rates increases were "definitely not" the case for most people.

"There may be some higher increases in some of the areas that have been rezoned because of the Unitary Plan.

"The way the valuations are calculated is the capital value is looked at first. That's what a property might sell at, at a particular date. In this case we're at July 1, 2017.

"Then the land value is calculated, and the land value is calculated as if there was no house on the property and it was sold as bare land at the same date. The improvement value isn't particularly linked to what you've got on it. We don't do a calculation in the same way as a market valuation.

"It's got to be remembered these valuations can't be used for insurance purposes or anything like that, it's purely for the purposes of rates. And rates can be calculated on land value or on the capital values for general rates."

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff had promised an overall rates rise of no more than 2.5 percent across Auckland. Ms Alcott says this means the overall Council Budget might increase by 2.5 percent, "but your portion might change if your valuation has changed".