A few days ago, Waikato District Council announced that property owners in the district can expect to receive their three-yearly Quotable Value (QV) revaluation in the next week or two. Although the Council downplayed the possibility of this causing an increase in rates, saying “a change in your rateable value does not mean rates for your property will change by a similar percentage”, many Raglanders suspected it would cause another increase in Raglan rates. As it seems that Raglan revaluations are higher at a 49.3 % average increase compared to the district wide increase of 33.7%, we can see that the revaluation will result in an increase for Raglan property owners. At the same time people in other parts of the Waikato District will have a decrease.
Waikato District Council’s General Manager Strategy and Support Tony Whittaker, said on the 13th October, “You might expect an increase in your general rates if your property value has increased by more than the 33.7 per cent average increase in property Capital Value across the district.”
We asked Waikato District Council how much Raglan valuations had gone up. They passed the query onto Quotable Value property valuer Stephen Hare.
Mr Hare said,
“Residential property in the Raglan Ward of Waikato district has increased in value by an average 49.3 per cent overall. The land value component of Raglan residential properties has gone up by more than 50 per cent. (Capital value is made up of land value and improvement value, see more information about this below.)
Raglan is a beach town and within commuting distance of Hamilton. When the Hamilton property market was starting to rise in 2015/16, Raglan was seen as an affordable option. The supply of residential property has not kept up with demand in the township.
(Capital Value (CV) is what your property is likely to have sold for, excluding chattels, at the effective date of your local council’s general revaluation which is July 1, 2017. The CV is also known as Government Valuation (GV) or Rating Valuation (RV). It is made up of Land Value (LV) and Improvement Value (IV) which is just the difference between the land value and capital value. It is important to note that the IV does not mean the replacement cost of buildings and services on a property. Go to www.ratingvalues.co.nz for more information.)”
QV’s information on my house shows it 59% above the 2014 rating valuation, based on 17 recent sales. The 49.3% average covers the whole Raglan ward, which extends as far as Aotea and the far side of the divi, so 59% is probably the rate increase we can expect in Raglan. Yet more people are going to be forced out of Raglan.