Auckland City Council

Auckland City’s new property valuations show steady growth without the spectacular rises and falls evident when the city was last revalued, in 1997.

The Capital Value of all property in Auckland City has increased from $50.8 billion to $63.6 billion in the past three years.

Annual Value, which Auckland City Council uses to apportion rates, increased from $3.04 billion to $3.81 billion.

Growth in total value of the Auckland City rating base was generally steady at around 12 - 15%. This can be accounted for partly by increases in market value (accounting for approximately 5% on average) and partly from additional value created by development.

Approximately 155,000 Auckland City properties have been revalued in the just completed three-yearly revaluation required by the Rating Valuations Act 1998. The District Valuation Roll was last revalued with an effective date of 31 January 1999.

The new values will be the rating valuations for Auckland City for the next three years. However, they will not affect rates until the Auckland City Council’s 2000/2001 financial year beginning in July next year.

Area by area variations

Chairperson of Auckland City Council’s Finance and Property Committee, Cr Kay McKelvie, says citywide, residential values increased by 3.58%, non-residential properties by 9.9%, and CBD non-residential by 5.14%.

An area by area analysis of the values shows that residential values increased in some suburbs of Auckland City and either stayed about the same or decreased slightly in others.

"However, there are none of the frenzied swings evident in the 1994 and 1997 revaluations. Rather, the changes appear to be market corrections of previous swings too far in one direction or another.

"For example, values in areas like Glen Innes, Pt England, Otahuhu and Arch Hill have come up slightly, residential values in the CBD have fallen and in the residential heart of Auckland City – One Tree Hill, Mt Eden, Epsom and Remuera, for example – there has been little change."

"It all points to a more stable property market than the Auckland City isthmus has experienced for many years."

The exceptions were CBD residential property values which were weak, showing decline in some cases, and Waiheke Island where values were relatively strong.

Implications for rates

Cr McKelvie says the effects of the revaluation on rates will be considered by the Council before next July, the start of the 2000/2001 rating year. "There are significant implications for the way rates may be levied that year and a number of options will need to be considered.

"It is important that property owners understand that an increase or decrease in Annual Value does not automatically mean people’s rates will be affected by the same percentage.

"The total rates revenue required by the Council is determined by the Annual Plan process. The rate per dollar of annual value is then set accordingly."

For example, a residential property on the isthmus with an Annual Value of $16,000 would be rated as follows:

Annual Value $ 16,000 . 00
X Rate in the dollar (residential) $ 0 . 065152

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rates payable $ 1,042 . 00

Notices of Valuation will be posted to property owners and occupiers on November 15. The notices will include the Land and Capital Values now assessed by Auckland City.

Objections to the valuations will close on December 17.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>