Rating valuations

The results of the 2019 revaluation are summarised below.

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. Any effect of the revaluation on the rates you pay will not take effect until 1 July 2020.

The amount of rates income needed for each year is set through the Long Term Plan and Annual Plans. For the 2020 - 2021 year, we are anticipating that the amount of rates income needed to run the district will increase by 3.7%.

This amount will be finalised through the Annual Plan process next year. The district is growing, and by the time we apply the revaluation figures from 1 July 2020, there will be more properties to divide the pie across.

At a very basic level, there are three steps:

1. Council works out how much income is needed from rates in order to run the district.
2. Some rates are for specific things such as water supply. These are called targeted rates and are charged only to the properties that use these services. Targeted rates are not calculated using the capital value method.
3. Money collected from the general rate is used to fund things that benefit the general good of the district like roads, park maintenance and community facilities. The general rate amount is then spread across the district in amounts proportional to each property's capital value compared to the total value of the district.

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 1 is still worth $500,000 but house 2 is now worth $750,000, then they would no longer pay the same amount of rates. House 1 would pay less than 50%, and house 2 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%.

The increase in the capital values of properties in the residential sector is 38%. This is due to the high demand for residential properties throughout New Zealand.

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 38%, that doesn't mean your rates will also go up by 38%. The amount you pay is relative to the total value of the district.

A Rating Value is assigned to every property in New Zealand and is made up of three components:

1. Capital Value: the likely price a property would sell for at the time of the revaluation
2. Land Value: the likely price the land would sell for at the time of the revaluation, and;
3. Value of Improvements: the difference between the Capital Value and Land Value. It reflects the added value given to the land by any buildings or other structures present on the property, and any landscaping that has been done. It is not intended to indicate the actual cost of building or landscaping.

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 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 Office of the Valuer General monitors, audits and certifies revaluations.

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.