Rating valuations

Average value movements across property categories

The average value changes across property categories in the 2022 revaluation are summarised below.

Residential capital value movements by location

The average capital value changes by location in the 2022 revaluation are summarised below.

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.

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 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