Auckland City Council Media release

20 October 2008

Council release updated property valuations

Ratepayers will receive their updated property valuation notices this week after Auckland City Council carried out its three-yearly revaluation of all properties in Auckland city, including on the Hauraki Gulf islands.

Councillor Douglas Armstrong says, "The council does not generate any extra revenue from this process. This is about fairly dividing up what share of the whole rates take each property pays.

"The valuations are used to set your property's share of the total rates revenue required by the council.

"The council agreed at the 10-year plan direction setting meeting on 7 October that rates increases would be held to council's rate of inflation over the 10-year plan period."

The values produced in a revaluation are created through a "mass appraisal" approach, not by individual appraisal of every property. Mass appraisal creates accurate value estimates quickly at relatively low cost. This technique is audited by the Valuer general and is used for all general revaluations in New Zealand.

A number of factors are used to value properties including residential and commercial sales, rental figures and changes or improvements to a property since the last valuation.

Where appropriate, the valuer took a look at a property from the street to check it matched the information in the records and to compare it with similar properties. This year 85,000 residential properties were inspected.

The revaluation notices will reflect the probable price properties would have sold for on 1 July 2008 hence they do not necessarily reflect the current market value at the date of the valuation notice.

The movements reflect the change from 1 July 2005 to 1 July 2008. Although there has been some decline in values in some areas over recent months, values rose in the earlier years in this time period which will be reflected in the valuations.

The new values are applied to rates with effect from 1 July 2009. The values across all the properties in the city form the base to apportion rates. Depending on whether a property falls either above or below the average will affect whether a property's share of total rates increases or decreases.

For example, if the average increase across Auckland is 12.5 per cent and your $300,000 property went up by five per cent, your rates portion could be slightly lower.

Conversely, if the average increase across Auckland is 12.5 per cent and your $300,000 property increased by 20 per cent, your rates portion could be slightly higher.

If you are not satisfied with your valuation you can lodge a formal objection with the council. The closing date for ratepayers to make an objection is 1 December 2008. Before this date, ratepayers can discuss the valuation on the phone with a valuer before making a final decision whether to object or not.

The valuation notices will be accompanied by a brochure outlining the valuation process, how properties were assessed, how to read the notice and how to object. Or, visit www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/valuation for more information.

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