The Rating Valuations Act 1998 requires that every property in New Zealand must be revalued for rating purposes at least once every three years.  Quotable Value Limited (as Council’s valuation service provider) completed Waitomo District Council’s General Revaluation in September 2018. 

Rating Values are calculated using a complex process called mass-appraisal. Basically, valuers consider relevant property sales from your area around the time of the valuation. A market trend is established and applied to similar properties. 

The rating valuations are an estimate of a properties market value (excluding chattels) as at September 2018.  Property markets tend to change over time, so rating valuations do not necessarily reflect current market value at a later date.

The General Revaluation helps us to work out everyone’s share of the rates.  The aim of the Revaluation is for rating purposes only and is not to provide values for property owners to use for marketing, sales or any other purposes.

In 2012 the total value of the Waitomo District decreased by 7.2%. The result of the 2015 revaluation was an increase of 2%.

The Waitomo District is now worth $3.6 billion which is an increase of 17.1% from the 2015 values.  The significant increase is a result of the strong property market which has impacted on the residential and lifestyle categories in particular, as shown below. 

Summary of the 2018 value changes for the main categories in the Waitomo District

Overall residential property values have increased by 44.9%, land values by 44.3%, and developed commercial property by 19.2%.

Property owners were given until 7 December 2018 to object to the revised valuations.  A total of 63 objections were received and reviewed by the valuation service provider.  The new valuations will be used for rating purposes from 1 July 2019.

Will the Revaluation effect the rates I pay?

An adjustment in a property’s capital value does not mean that the property rates will automatically change. This is because the revaluation does not impact the rates revenue required by Council to provide the services.  However, the revaluation can result in a change to the rates charged to individual properties with some increasing and some decreasing because the rates charged on the basis of capital value are split among properties proportionally.

If you think of the Council’s rates revenue requirement as a pie, the size of the pie does not increase because 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 for the district.

It is important to note that only rates charged on the basis of capital value will be affected by the revaluation (General Rate, District Roading Rate, District Development Rates, and Urban Stormwater Rate).  All other rates charged on a uniform basis will not be affected.   For example, in the 2018/19 year, a typical residential property with a capital value of $170,000 has annual rates of $3,664.00. Less than a quarter of this amount, $707, is based on the properties valuation so only this portion is affected by a change in valuation. The remainder of the total rates is not impacted by valuation changes.

Further information

Following the adoption of Council’s Exceptions Annual Plan later in the month, ratepayers will be provided with the opportunity to access rates information online detailing the rates for individual properties for the 2019/2020 rating year beginning 1 July 2019.