Every three years a general revaluation of properties in the Taupō District is carried out. The most recent property valuations were released in December 2022.
A Notice of Rating Valuation was sent to all property owners by post, or by email if you have opted in to receive email from council.
The revaluations were carried out by Opteon, an independent valuation service provider. The process is independently audited by the Office of the Valuer General, a department of Land Information New Zealand.
The new valuations are dated as at 1 July 2022 and are based on sale prices for comparative properties (similar type and location) around that time. Any new properties built after 2022 will be valued under the market conditions at 1 July 2022 to ensure uniformity across the district.
An increase in your property value may not mean you pay more in rates.
If your property has increased by 72 per cent, this does not mean that you will pay 72 per cent more in rates. Any rates increase is determined by your property value increase compared with the average increase across the Taupō District.
If you think of the Council’s rates income as a pie, the size of the pie does not get any bigger as a result of the revaluation. However, a ratepayer’s slice of pie might get bigger or smaller depending on how their property value has changed in relation to the average change of the district. Also, the amount of general rates on a property is affected by the total amount of rates income required to fund the services and programmes approved by the Council in the Annual Plan or Long Term Plan, and the number of new properties created through growth.
Note that Council do not make more money because of this revaluation. The revaluation does not increase the amount of money we collect from rates - it simply helps us work out everyone’s share of rates.
Any effect of the revaluation on the rates you pay will not take effect until 1 July 2023.
Find out more about valuations and rates in the FAQ section below.
Objection period for revaluations now closed
The objection period for the district-wide revaluations released in December 2022 closed on 17 January 2023.
If you don't agree with the value of a property, you can object to it. An objection to a revaluation can be lodged with us only when the objection process is open which is approximately six weeks from when a new valuation is published. The objection due date can be found on your valuation notice.
If you are a ratepayer or property owner within the District when there has been a general revaluation - within the applicable timeframes you may also object to the valuation of any other property appearing on the District Valuation Roll; you must provide a copy of your objection to the owner and or ratepayer (if different) of the rating unit.
All properties that have an objection lodged are inspected as it is a legal requirement. A valuer may contact you if the inspection and consequent review cannot be conducted from the outside of the property. The outcome of the consideration of your objection will be advised to you in writing.
You can submit an objection to your rating valuation by printing the PDF form and returning it to us in the post or at your nearest Council office.
At the completion of the objection process, if you and the valuer cannot agree on a valuation for your property you may seek to have your objection heard by the Land Valuation Tribunal for a fee of $50. At the hearing you will be required to state your estimate of the value and provide evidence to support your claim.
This evidence would normally be information about sales of similar properties, which occurred at, or near, the date of the valuation being objected to. The Land Valuation Tribunal will make a decision based on the evidence presented.
Average value movements across property categories
The average value changes across property categories in the 2022 revaluation are summarised below.
Property category | Capital Value | Land Value |
---|---|---|
Residential | + 72% | + 92% |
Commercial | + 41% | + 66% |
Industrial | + 57% | + 115% |
Lifestyle | + 74% | + 87% |
Dairy Farms | + 22% | + 15% |
Pastoral Farms | + 52% | + 54% |
Residential capital value movements by location
The average capital value changes by location in the 2022 revaluation are summarised below.
Location | Capital Value Change |
---|---|
Nukuhau | + 62% |
Taupō Town Centre | + 64% |
Taupō Town South | + 72% |
Acacia Bay | + 58% |
Kinloch | + 79% |
Mangakino | + 90% |
Tūrangi | + 69% |
Eastern Lakeshore | + 78% |
Western Lakeshore | + 76% |
We won’t know what your final rates will be until the Annual Plan for 2023-24 is finalised as this will provide the final figure of any rates increase for 2023-24.
At the start of 2023 Council will begin working on its Annual Plan for 2023-24 which sets out the services and programmes it plans to undertake from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 and the costs.
The Long-term Plan 2021-2031 forecast an average rates increase of 3.74 per cent in the 2023-24 financial year, however this will be reviewed through the Annual Plan process. The cost of materials and the impact of inflation means this 3.74 per cent figure may rise. How this will affect rates will be shown at an individual property level through Council’s online Rating Information Database during the consultation process. If Council budgets shift from the rates forecast, the community will first be asked for its views.
The Taupō District has experienced strong growth since the 2019 revaluation. The increase in the capital value of properties in the residential sector is 72%.
If the capital value of your property has gone up by more than the average of the district, then your proportion of the general rate will go up. If your property’s value has increased by less than the average, then your proportion will go down.
However, it is important to remember that even if the capital value of your home has increased by more than 72%, that doesn’t mean your rates will also go up by 72%. The amount you pay is relative to the total value of the district.
At a very basic level, there are three steps:
For example
If there were only two properties in the district each worth $500,000, then each house would pay 50% of the general rates required to run the district. This is because each house makes up half of the total value of the district.
If, when they are revalued, house one is still worth $500,000 but house two is now worth $750,000, then they would no longer pay the same amount of rates. House one would pay less than 50%, and house two would pay more, because each pay a share of the rates in proportion to the value of their house compared to the value of the district as a whole. In this case, 40% and 60%.
A Rating Value is assigned to every property in New Zealand and is made up of three components:
Rating values exist for the purpose of apportioning rates and are determined as at an effective date.
A current market valuation can be requested at any point in time. They are at the property owners cost and involve an extensive interior and exterior inspection as well as an assessment of comparable sales.
The Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 provides that rating valuations is one of the tools that can be used by Council’s to assess rates. Legislation requires that revaluations are conducted at least every three years in New Zealand.
There are two independent value service providers operating in New Zealand, Quotable Value and Opteon. The Taupō District Council contract Opteon to provide the rating valuations. This work is done using registered valuers.
The Rating Valuations Act sets minimum standards and specifications necessary for the maintenance and upkeep of district valuation rolls in the interests of ensuring a nationally consistent, impartial, independent, and equitable rating valuation system.
The Valuer General’s office audits the work of the value service providers, and signs off the revaluation if it is confident it is robust. The Valuer General’s office is a department of Land Information New Zealand.
Rating values care calculated using a complex process called mass appraisal.
In its simplest sense, valuers consider all relevant property sales which occurred in an area around the date of the valuation. A market trend is established and applied to similar properties in the area.
A number of assessments of individual properties are completed every year as a result of building consents issues, subdivisions, sales inspections, objections and ratepayer requests to update their rating value.
We store details on every property which valuers use as part of the process. These reflect the changes that the council knows about e.g. new buildings that have required a consent.
Those ratepayers who have made changes to their properties that the council has not been notified about can ask for the valuers to reconsider the rating value through the objection process.
The status of Māori freehold land is determined by the Māori Land Court as defined in the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 (TTWMA) or known as Maori Land Act.
Recent best practice guidance from the Valuer General recommends a uniform lump sum adjustment of $7,000 for Māori freehold land rating units to reflect administration costs associated with Māori Land Court rules.
Councils are required to display the adjustment for Māori freehold land valuations on the notice of valuation. This discounts the value of Māori land up to 10% depending on the number of owners or preferred class of alienees. Land that's considered to have special significance may also be discounted up to 5 per cent. Māori freehold land would have a minimum value of $100 after the discounts and adjustments are applied. The valuer will consider each valuation individually.
The notice of valuation is sent to the first owner/ratepayer held in the rating information database during the revaluation process.
Find out more on the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) website