New property valuations have been delayed in Auckland. Photo / Nick Reed
New property valuations have been delayed in Auckland. Photo / Nick Reed
Many Auckland ratepayers face changing rates due to delays in new property valuations.
The council plans to apply valuations from July 1, but objections may alter rates.
Cr Chris Darby said the revaluation process “appears somewhat messy and opaque”.
Thousands of Auckland ratepayers could find their rates chopping and changing this year due to long delays with the new property valuations, commonly known as CVs.
With the council planning to apply the new valuations to set rates from July 1, many ratepayers will object to their newvalues, and the process will run past this date.
This would lead to ratepayers paying the rates struck on July 1, but later paying higher or lower rates if their objections are successful.
The council has completed the new valuations as of May 1 last year, used to set rates. However, their release has been pushed back from late last year to May of this year, and now some time in 2025.
Councillor Chris Darby said the “clock is ticking” on releasing the new valuations to set rates on July 1.
Councillor Chris Darby says he has been asking questions regarding the revaluation process for months.
“From memory, the appeal process is usually well and truly completed before the rates strike on July 1. Unless valuations are finalised and released by mid-May, I struggle to see how the appeal period can be met before July 1,” he said.
Darby said he had been asking questions regarding the revaluation process for months, noting that “it appears somewhat messy and opaque”.
The head of rates, Rhonwen Heath, said the council was tracking for the CVs to be completed and applied to rates by July 1, subject to approval by the Valuer-General.
“While an exact timeline for the release of new values to Auckland ratepayers is to be confirmed, it is likely the objections process will run through July 1,” she said.
Heath said it was typical for objections not to be resolved by July 1 as they varied in complexity and must be revised by a registered valuer, including a site visit.
At the last revaluation in 2021, more than 9000 objections were made to the council.
Once the Valuer-General approves the new valuations and the council issues a public notice, ratepayers have 30 working days to lodge an objection.
Heath said if an objection led to rates changing, the council adjusted the rates either up or down. Refunds were paid for overpaid rates, she said.
The capital values (CVs) are a massive source of fascination for property-mad Aucklanders when it comes to buying and selling homes, and involve the council estimating the value of every residential and commercial property in the region.
The latest valuations reflect the market as of May 1 last year, when OneRoof figures show Auckland’s average property value was $1.31 million. This is marginally less than the average property value of $1.37m when Auckland CVs were last taken in June 2021.
Between the two sets of CVs, average Auckland property prices peaked at $1.58m in January 2022 and fell to 2021 levels by the latest valuations in May last year, according to OneRoof figures.
Since May 2024 and this year, the city’s average property value has dipped by 0.8% from $1.32m to $1.3m.
Darby said while commentators made the point of not relying on council CVs as an indicator of market value, many people did. Many real estate agents would refer to the council valuation when appraising a property.
CVs are still important when it comes to buying and selling homes, says One Roof editor Owen Vaughan.
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said that while CVs were largely irrelevant in an era where up-to-date property valuation data was published on multiple sites, “they are still an important crutch to many buyers and sellers in the market and are often the go-to figure when quickly assessing how much a home is worth”.
“Further delays just make it harder to gauge the Auckland housing market. The current CVs are from 2021 when prices were skyrocketing – they don’t exactly reflect current prices.
“The new ones may be equally past their sell-by date when they come out and leave buyers frustrated.”
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