By WAYNE THOMPSON
AUCKLAND - East Coast Bays home-owners are the latest victims of harsh property revaluations that have rocked residents of premier Auckland suburbs.
The capital value of residential property in East Coast Bays has dropped an average 6.2 per cent and in Glenfield 2.2 per cent against the last three-yearly valuation in North Shore City.
A councillor from the bays, Gary Holmes, said residents were demanding reasons for inconsistencies. He gave the example of a Mairangi Bay home's value dropping more than 16 per cent, while a Campbells Bay property increased 14 per cent.
This mirrors experiences across the harbour, where variations in Auckland City revaluations caused about 6200 residents to object by the deadline last Friday. They face capital-value drops of up to 30 per cent on the last revaluation in 1997.
The revenue manager for North Shore City, Tom Wong Kam, said the capital values went up for other wards. Devonport rose 6 per cent, Takapuna 2.2 per cent, Albany 1.2 per cent and Birkenhead 0.33 per cent.
Inland of East Coast Rd seemed to be the area hardest hit by the revaluation, which Quotable Value Rating assessed for the council based on analyses of property sales.
Of 63,000 homes assessed, the land value of 16,878 stayed at the level of three years ago. For 10,000 homes it dropped up to 20 per cent, and for the rest it rose up to 30 per cent.
Mr Kam said the average citywide increase in rateable value was 7.93 per cent.
Objections could be lodged up to January 28.
Auckland City objections, representing 4 per cent of houseowners, were not surprisingly high, said the council valuation manager, Gilbert van Schaijik. They included some complaints that valuations were too high.
The Herald received complaints that mistakes were made in revaluations because of rises and falls among neighbouring properties and expensive improvements being overlooked.
Real estate agents feared that buyers would treat depressed revaluations as an official benchmark now that the traditional Government valuation system had been scrapped in favour of local bodies assessing capital and land values.
Mr van Schaijik analysed the movements in residential capital values, comparing the Auckland City valuations made on January 31, 1997, with the council's 1999 values and the Valuation NZ values of 1997. His analysis showed the Government valuation for city homes set in October 1997 was about 4 per cent higher than the council's October 1999 valuation.
He believed that had Valuation NZ carried out the assessment this year, it would have reached the same conclusion as the council. There was some suggestion that council values were too conservative, but it had analysed true market sales.
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