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New council valuations in Auckland will see some property owners facing bigger rates increases than others

Property
New council valuations in Auckland will see some property owners facing bigger rates increases than others
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</a>

This year's revised Auckland Council rating valuations could contain both good and bad news for ratepayers when they are posted out to property owners in mid-November.

On average the new valuations are likely to have increased by 33% since the last rating valuations were issued in 2011, Auckland Council Registered Valuer Peter McKay said.

Most people will welcome the higher valuations because if they haven't taken on any extra debt during that period, the equity in their properties should have increased, effectively increasing their net wealth.

The downside is that the valuations are used by the council to set rates bills.

That doesn't mean that rates will rise by a third.

But those property owners whose properties have increased by more than the 33% regional average, will likely end up facing a bigger increase, in percentage terms, than owners of properties in areas that have increased by less than the average.

Big increases for Maungakiekie-Tamaki & Whau

The Auckland Council local board area facing the biggest increase is Maungakiekie-Tamaki, where rating valuations are likely to have increased by an average 44%.

That includes the suburbs of One Tree Hill, Royal Oak, Onehunga, Penrose, Mt Wellington, Panmure and Glen Innes.

That means property owners in those areas could be facing the biggest percentage increases in their rates bills of anywhere in the region.

That's followed by the Whau local board area, where average valuations are up by 41%. Whau includes the inner west suburbs of New Lynn, Green Bay, Kelston, Avondale, New Windsor and Blockhouse Bay.

All of the Auckland Council local board areas and the likely increase in their valuations, are listed below.

Those above the blue line, which shows the average increase for the whole region, could be facing some of the sharpest increases in their rates bills.

Those below the blue line, where valuations have increased by less than the regional average, may be facing slightly less pain.

Auckland Council local board areas and their rating valuation increases:

Mangakiekie-Tamaki +44%. Includes One Tree Hill, Royal Oak, Onehunga, Penrose, Mt Wellington, Panmure and Glen Innes.

Whau +41%. Includes New Lynn, Green Bay, Kelston, Rosebank, Avondale, New Windsor and Blockhouse Bay.

Puketapapa +41%. Includes Three Kings, Hillsborough, Waikowhai, Lynfield and Wesley.

Kaipatiki +41%. Includes Beach Haven, Birkenhead, Chatswood, Birkdale, Northcote, Glenfield and Hillcrest.

Henderson-Massey +39%. Includes Te Atatu, West Harbour, Westgate, Ranui, Massey, Henderson and Glendene. 

Mangere-Otahuhu +37%. Mangere including Mangere Bridge, Mangere East, Otahuhu and Favona. 

Albert-Eden +37%. Includes Waterview, Pt Chevalier, Mt Albert, Sandringham, Morningside, Owairaka, Balmoral, Kingsland, Mt Eden and Greenlane.

Devonport -Takapuna +37%. From Sunnynook and Castor Bay to Devonport.

Orakei +35%. Includes Orakei, Mission Bay, Kohimarama, St Heliers, Glendowie, St Johns, Meadowbank, Remuera and Ellerslie.

Otara-Papatoetoe +35%. Includes Otara, Papatoetoe, Puhunui and Manukau Central.

Howick +35%. Includes Howick, Pakuranga, Flat Bush Botany and East Tamaki.

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Auckland Council Average +33%. Average of all areas in the Auckland region

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Manurewa +32%. Includes Manurewa, Homai, Wiri, Weymouth and Wattle Downs.

Waitakere Ranges +32%. From Whatipu to O'Neill Bay, including Titirangi, Wiatakere, Glen Eden and Swanson.

Upper Harbour +31%. Includes Whenuapai, Hobsonville, Paremoremo, Greenhithe, Wainoni, Albany, Northcross and Pinehill.

Waitemata +29%. Includes Auckland CBD, Parnell, Newmarket, Westmere, Grey Lynn,  Ponsonby, Freemans Bay and Herne Bay.

Hibiscus & Bays +29%. From Campbells Bay to Waiwera, including Whangaparaoa, Orewa, Silverdale, Browns Bay and Mairangi Bay.

Papakura +26%. From Drury to Alfriston including Takanini, Red Hill, Hingaia, Papakura and Pahurehure.

Rodney 24%. Includes Kawau Island, Kumeu/Huapai, Helensville, Warkworth, Matakana and Wellsford.

Franklin +22%. Includes Awhitu, Karaka, Ardmore, Clevedon, Whitford, Beachlands, Maraetai, Pukekohe, Waiuku, Kawakawa Bay and Orere Point.

Waiheke +10%.

Great Barrier -12%.

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16 Comments

Why headline this " rates pain" when for many it's "rates joy" .

We need a half full glass please.

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The fact is that the average working class Joe who paid $600k for a Grey Lynn house pre-2009 now has to pay home mortgage as well as exorbitant Council rates.  Yes their home may be worth $1.5m on paper now but it doesn't sound like a rates joy to me.  No wonder the Auckland's middle-income working poor are now fearing being priced out.

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I would be happy to pay a $10-20 a week more in rates to see my net worth increase by $900000. Hell I would retire now and by a bach up north for $150000 and put my feet up.

It would take 35 years saving at around $220 a week to save that sort of cash. And lets not forget its tax free income foir them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No sympathy here.

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Capital gain means nothing if you are not selling.  Where does an average Joe find the extra money for the rates?  For a $1.5M CV, the rates would have been well over $6k per annum.  Where does the extra money come from??

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tax free income where?  if they're not selling then there's no income apart from rent (which the yield just dropped) and they definitely pay tax on the rent

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So absent any finangling of say rates differentials by the Council and its minions, it's Good News for the Island Kingdoms of Great Barrier and Waiheke.....and even (shock, horror), Parnell.

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No landlord is complaining about rates increases of a couple of hundred dollars a year when the value of their property has gone up by perhaps 30%.

Even in the lower-value suburbs, an increase of 30% means the property is probably worth $75,000 more than three years ago.

If that means an extra $200-$300 on my rates bill then I will take the trade-off any day.

Yep... all's good in landlord land.

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Well these are just suburb averages, so I have to wait and see if my property value has gone up by more or less than 33% average, in November....
And have they finished increasing household rates and decreasing business rates yet?
And will the slimy mayor now increase the uniform annual general charge now that his constituents Mangere Otahuhu suburbs have had an unexpected value increase?
Changed rubbish collections....
Projected cost increases with the mayors train tunnel project.
There are many factors at play here.
It would be nice if we had a council which would stick to its knitting. The boring maintenance things.

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Those in the regions, where values have flatlined, are discovering their rates are still being hiked.  Councils just increase the flat charge components and the differential rates since the land values have not increased.

 

 

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Auckland City , like the rest of us , needs to live within its means, and avoid using house price increases as a get-out-of-jail-free card for what many of us see as waste , extravagance and mismanagement of the City finances.

For them to use these house price increases ( which they have largely caused  ) as a pretext to extract more money from middle class homeowers is wrong on every level .

We also need to stop funding all sorts of fringe events , and pamering to special interest groups using ratepayer money  . 

If the Socttish bag pipers want an event  , or the pasifika want a music concert , or the gay community want a BBQ at Pt Chev , they shoud fund raise it themselves.

We have even seen Auckland Council bring a  football team from  overseas and lose a fortune in so doing .

What kind of BS is that ?

 I dont want to pay for it,  nor should I have to  .

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As stated above ones rates do not increase just because a homes GV has increased. Rather it is based how the value of the home compares to other properties who have generally also seen large capital gains. If you have gained more than average your rates will rise. If less than the average they will go down.

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Just add it to the mortgage over 20 years and let the capital gain go on, ppl complaining about rates when their wealth has increased 30%. Il take the capital gain any day...penny wise pound foolish

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My last house in Auckland I paid $5940/year for Rates.  My current home in Brisbane (almost the same value), I am paying $1400/year.  Here the grass berms are (well) maintained by the council, all library borrowing are free, miles of bike paths around the city, 10 free trips to the tips/year..  Len is doing an outstanding job..

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Capital gain of your residence does not mean a thing if you're not selling. The method of raising levies to fund the city are terribly askew - they should not be based on value of your residence, but based on income.

We have a lot of cases where people who have lived in the same area for 30 years and are now on a pension, suddenly can't afford to stay in their house because their neighbourhood has gotten 'popular', and hence their rates have doubled.....

What's fair about that?

A flat tax is only fair when everybody earns the same amount - which is never.

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You would have to wonder about the common sense of a pensioner scraping by remaining in home in an affluent area that has seen huge capital gains, when they could cash up move to a more modest suburb,  live well and have some left over to give the grandkids a house deposit.

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Too bloody true!

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