29 Nov 2016

Chch property values up 9.2% in three years

7:05 pm on 29 November 2016

Property values in Christchurch have increased by 9.2 percent in the past three years, according to new QV figures.

The information has been gathered by QV to help the Christchurch City Council set its rates for next year.

Residents will receive their exact valuation in the mail from Friday and the new rates will take effect from the middle of next year.

QV has relied on homeowners' honesty in establishing whether earthquake repairs have been carried out and how this might affect a property's value.

This was because there was no register of where repairs or rebuilds have taken place.

The rise is down on recent rating revaluations in other regions, including Dunedin - which was up by an average of 12.6 percent - and Lower Hutt, which was up 25 percent.

Residents are now able to see their exact valuation on the council's website and will receive these in the mail from Friday.

Council spokesperson Steve Ballard warned prospective house buyers not to put too much store in a property's rateable value when trying to work out how much it was worth.

"You need to try and investigate what is the status of earthquake damage, what is the status of earthquake repair that's been done since then.

"So there is an awful lot of extra due diligence that might not be the case in other cities.

"And in any city frankly, people shouldn't really be relying on the rating value, that's a snap shot in time."

Individual valuations can be found on the Christchurch Council website here.

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