Waitomo District property owners will soon receive a Notice of Rating Valuation in the post with an updated rating value for their property.

Rating valuations are usually carried out on all New Zealand properties every three years to help local councils set rates for the following three-year period. They reflect the likely selling price of a property at the effective revaluation date, which was 1 September 2021, and do not include chattels.

The new rating valuations have been prepared for 5,871 properties on behalf of the Waitomo District Council by Quotable Value (QV). They show the total rateable value for the district is now $4.62 billion with the land value of those properties now valued at $3 billion

They show that, on average, the value of residential housing has increased 64% since 2018 with the average house value now sitting at $365,000, while the corresponding average land value increased by 110% to an average of $146,000.

QV Area Manager Jarrod Hedley said the demand for residential housing has been very buoyant across the district, heightened since the initial 2020 COVID lockdown, with Te Kuiti seeing an overall increase of about 64%. Demand for vacant land has also increased with residential land values up 110% for the whole district.

“We have seen significant value lifts across the entire residential market since 2018 with values only now starting to stabilise in the last month or so leading into the New Year. Lower-value properties have seen the most competition from buyers, resulting in some of the greatest value increases. Demand from buyers coming from outside the region has also helped fuel the local market,” said Mr Hedley.

Meanwhile, commercial property values have increased by 15% and property values in the industrial sector have increased by 42% since the district’s last rating valuation in 2018. Commercial and industrial land values have also increased by 30% and 153% respectively.

“Retail and office properties have seen lower increases in value than the residential property market, but they have still increased well off the back of some strengthening yields,” said Mr Hedley.

“While there is demand from buyers for good-quality properties with favourable leases in place, this has been offset to some degree by online competition for retailers and the start of a post-lockdown trend for more people to work from home. We have seen steady value increases for industrial properties, particularly in land values.”

Residential housing value changes since 2018 revaluation levels:

Since 2018, the average capital value of an improved lifestyle property has increased by 46% to $439,000, while the corresponding land value for a lifestyle property increased by 81% to $268,000.

Mr Hedley said lifestyle properties typically aligned in value with high-end residential properties. “This segment of the market has been buoyant. A smaller market and less demand has meant there has not been quite the same increase in the land values as seen in the residential market,” he said.

“The dairy farm market showed little change in value off the back of high value levels set in 2018. After a sustained subdued period of market uncertainties and volatility, investor appetite has begun to reappear in rural markets. While dairy values only slightly increased overall, pastoral and forestry properties saw good increases, up 20% and 37% respectively, from their 2018 land values.”

It is helpful to remember the effective rating revaluation date of 1 September 2021 has passed and any changes in the market since then will not be included in the new rating valuations. This means in many cases a sale price achieved in the market today may be different to the new rating valuation set as at 1 September 2021.

The updated rating valuations are independently audited by the Office of the Valuer General and need to meet rigorous quality standards before the new rating valuations are certified. They are not intended to be used as market valuations for raising finance with banks or as insurance valuations.

New rating values will be posted to property owners after 2 February 2022. If owners do not agree with their rating valuation, they have a right to object through the objection process before 18 March 2022.

For more information, please contact:

Simon Petersen
QV Communications Manager

(09) 361 7216

[email protected]