In mid-December you will receive a letter that will tell you the new valuation of your property. Council uses Quotable Value (QV) every three years to give us new valuations for all properties in Porirua City so we can set rates fairly.
In most cases you’ll find the value of your property has gone up. While that’s good news to many people, it also means that you could be paying more rates if your property has gone up by more than the average property value.
If you think of rates as a pie, the size of the pie doesn’t get bigger because of the new valuation. However, a ratepayer’s slice of the pie might get bigger or smaller depending on how their property value has changed in relation to the average change of valuations in the city. The total amount of rates collected stays the same.
“It’s important to remember that even if the value of your home has increased, that doesn’t mean your rates will go up by a similar percentage,” says Chief Financial Officer Roy Baker.
Property values throughout the Wellington region started to swing upwards in late 2015 and, in our last revaluation in 2016, some parts of the city like Camborne, Pukerua Bay and Whitby had large increases in their rates. Since then values have continued to increase substantially, especially in the more affordable parts of Porirua, Mr Baker says.
“Indicative new valuations show that the value of residential properties, particularly in the east and west, along with industrial and some larger rural properties, have gone up much more than other Porirua properties.”
The new valuations have been set based on property values as at 1 September 2019.
“We will use the new valuations to set rates from 1 July 2020. Council rates are set every year in our Annual Plan or Long-term Plan and they are used to run the Council and provide services such as for water, wastewater, stormwater roads, parks, licenses and consents, rubbish, halls, swimming pools, Pātaka, libraries and events.
“You will have the opportunity to object to the valuation for your property free of charge as long as you submit your request to QV by 31 January 2020. Information on how to do this is on the back of your Notice of Rating Valuation that you will receive from QV in December.”
26 Nov 2019
