VALUATION 1999 - How property values are assessed.

Auckland City Council - City Scene
All properties in Auckland City (approximately 155,000) have been revalued and owners will receive notices of their new valuations in mid-November.

Auckland City and contracted valuers used a wide range of information to reassess the values, including:

What properties are selling and renting for in different areas:
* The demand to buy or rent property in different areas
* The type of property, for example whether it is a house, a factory or a shop
* The size of the property and its buildings, including their construction, for example whether they are brick, wood or concrete block
* Improvements made to the property since it was last valued such as the addition of a room, a swimming pool or garage.

Valuers will get this information from many sources, including:
* Recent sales in the neighbourhood
* Recent rentals in the neighbourhood
* Auckland City's building and subdivision consent registers
* Assessments of market trends
* Comprehensive data records held by Auckland City and previously by Valuation New Zealand>

Using all this information, registered valuers compiled a comprehensive file - including photographs and values - of "benchmark" properties.

The valuers then looked at every property in the City to see if it matched the information they had on file. They also compared it to the analysis of the "benchmark" properties, to establish if its value was higher or lower than the benchmark for that particular category of property and its location.

Q. How can you value my property when I have lived here for 28 years and have never been visited by a valuer?

A. Chattels are not assessed in the rating valuations. The interior finish is only one of the factors taken into account when valuing the property. Interior inspections are generally only done when major consent work is carried out. To inspect the interior of each property would be a major and expensive task which is not warranted. Most of what the Valuers need to know, they see from the street, or on property files at Auckland City. For these reasons valuers have not inspected the interior of each property to complete the valuation task.

Most of what valuers needed to know, they saw from the street, or on your property's file at Auckland City. If you are concerned that additions and alterations have not been included in your new valuation, you will have an opportunity to correct this after you receive your Valuation Notice. However, as long as a consent was obtained for any additions or alterations, the information that valuers needed to include such improvements in the new values will be on the property's file at Auckland City.

'City Scene' invites questions relating to valuations from readers. The questions and their answers will be published over coming weeks.

Please write to :
John May, PR manager, Auckland City
Private Bag 92516,
Wellesley St.

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