No game out Wimbledon Way

All the houses in Wimbledon Way have precisely the same valuation. Picture / Paul Estcourt

When it comes to estimating the market value of 163,000 houses in Auckland, the potential for a few mistakes is high.

But when all houses in one Remuera street were being wrongly pegged as having precisely the same worth the residents were astonished - and not exactly sympathetic to the valuers.

Sandy Pont, who lives in Remuera's Wimbledon Way, complained to the Herald about the blunder which resulted in houses in her street being given the same valuation: $375,000.

Houses in other streets nearby were also valued at exactly the same amount. Some valuation details were also wrong, Pont said, citing that houses built of brick were listed as being built of wood.

"I don't believe the valuation people came to look at the properties," she said. "It's just ridiculous to think that ratepayers paid for such a poor job."

"Every house on my street was valued at the same amount,"she said, even though the homes differed markedly.

"Although they are similar townhouses built in one development, they all differ. Some have two bedrooms, some four and many have significant improvements."

John Wells, Auckland City's valuation manager, said he had investigated and was somewhat surprised to find every house was valued the same.

"Something's not quite right," he said, citing an extremely thorough valuation process on all suburbs on the Auckland isthmus between July and November last year.

He attributed the Wimbledon Way blunder to a statistical calculation error.

"We indexed things up and didn't make a distinction between the two and three-bedroom properties so we have treated the house development as identical entirely," Wells said.

He asked that residents lodge an objection to their valuations. "There's not a great deal we can do about it other than for the people in that street to object."

He was not aware of revaluation mistakes in other Auckland streets.