New rates revaluations released

New rating valuations for all properties across Gisborne district have been completed and will start arriving in the letter boxes of property owners next week.

The overall result shows a small rise in value by 0.1 percent to $8.73 billion for the total capital value of the 23,208 properties in the district.

“This total remains around ten percent below the peak in values of 2008 which were assessed just months before the global financial crisis hit.” Says Garth Laing, director of Landmass Technology Ltd.

The three-yearly valuation project has been undertaken for Gisborne District Council by independent property valuers Landmass Technology Ltd.

“Valuers have spent recent months reviewing sales and undertaking inspections to determine the value of properties.” Says chief finance and information officer, Barry Vryenhoek.

The effective date of the valuation is 1 July 2014.

“Within the district there are varying movements for the different classes of property although they tend to follow the trends evident in other north island provincial districts.” Says Garth Laing.

“The rural and commercial/industrial sectors have generally gone up a little while the residential has gone down by a small margin.”

The average movement in residential values across the city is a drop of five percent.

“Factors such as the low population growth, the impact of the loan to value ratio restrictions and rental investors exiting the market mean that in provincial New Zealand the housing market is not making the same headlines in the news as Auckland and Christchurch.”

The district wide average value for lifestyle properties is now $294,000 having dropped four percent from 2011.

Over ninety percent of the lifestyle properties have moved in a range between a twenty percent drop and ten percent increase, reflecting other districts that have been revalued this year.

“The lifestyle market tends to move in a similar direction and often by a similar amount as the broader residential market.” Says Garth Laing.

One third of the commercial and industrial properties went down in value but the overall change for this type of property saw an increase of nearly three percent.

“Since 2008 the market for commercial and industrial properties has favoured safe, well-presented properties and in this regard Gisborne appears to be ahead of many centres in terms of managing the earthquake risk issue.”

“The economic performance of the pastoral sector has been positive for the past couple of years and this has translated into a total increase in the value of pastoral property in the district of nearly seven percent.” Says Garth Laing.

The previous revaluation of the district (2011) had resulted in an eighteen percent overall drop in pastoral values

“So the recovery perhaps reflects a more cautious view of the future that has prevailed in the past.” Says Garth Laing.

The horticultural and cropping values show similar trends to the pastoral, but with the total increase for horticultural properties at nine percent and cropping at three percent.

Forestry, which showed the largest value increase for the 2011 revaluation (up 24 percent on 2008) has shown a slight drop (down four percent overall) this time around.

The new valuations come into effect for council rating at the start of the 2015/16 financial year (1 July 2015).

Property owners have until 28 November 2014 to lodge an objection if they believe their new property valuation has not been correctly assessed.

Information on the objection process will be included with the new valuation notices being mailed to owners.

The new Gisborne District Valuation Roll will be open for public inspection at council offices in Fitzherbert street and Te Puia Springs service centre and on council’s website www.gdc.govt.nz

Table 1.

The residential statistics for Gisborne City, comparing the 2014 valuations with 2011 are:

ENDS

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