Auckland Council has proposed increasing rates by 7.5 per cent this year. Photo / 123rf
Auckland Council has proposed increasing rates by 7.5 per cent this year. Photo / 123rf
What will the 7.5 per cent rates increase proposed by Auckland Council mean for your property? And who is the homeowner with a rates bill of more than $200,000? Herald data journalists Chris Knox and Julia Gabel explain how the numbers affect you.
Homeowners are facing a medianrates increase of $228 under a 7.5 per cent hike proposed by Auckland Council, a Herald analysis shows.
Over 10 years, the proposed increases will add up to about 48 per cent for the more-than-600,000 ratepayers in Auckland, and that means the median rates bill in 2034 will be roughly $1500 more than it is today.
New Zealand’s richest man, Graeme Hart, faces the biggest personal increase on his $102 million Glendowie property. The packaging billionaire pays about $200,000 a year in rates for this property and his rates bill next year is expected to be about $15,000 more.
With an estimated net worth of $12 billion, Hart can afford the increase, but other Aucklanders will be struggling. An 80-year-old Wattle Downs resident, who faces a $227 increase to $3257 for her property, said budgeting was getting “harder and harder” and the extra rates bill would have an impact.
The Herald has calculated how these proposals could affect every property in Auckland.
The map below shows the present rates for each property and by how much they would increase this year.(Auckland Council will provide its own property-specific online rates guide during the March public consultation.)
Ensure you click “close” once finished with each property to continue searching the map and reading the article.
Commercial Bay, a shopping precinct in the Auckland CBD, and Auckland Airport have the two largest individual rates bills. Next year, Commercial Bay faces a rates increase of more than half a million to $8.3 million. The rates bill for the airport will increase by $447,426 to $6.4m under the proposal.
The suburbs facing the highest median increase in rates are Hobson Bay near Parnell and Remuera ($1143), Penrose ($778), and Coxs Bay near Grey Lynn ($775). Some of the smallest rates increases will be in Grafton ($117) and Auckland Central ($126), where many properties are apartments.
Almost half of Auckland ratepayers are due for increases this year between $150 and $250; 138,788 (23.1 per cent) properties are in the $150-$200 bracket, and 141,280 (23.5 per cent) properties will increase by $200-$250.
CoreLogic head of research Nick Goodall said inflation was affecting the council and it had to look for more revenue to cover those higher costs.
“Inflation has been quite high, so they’re paying a higher cost for the same services that applied the year or the years beforehand.”
Auckland Council continues to face “significant financial challenges” externally, according to advice from council officers, and at a budget committee meeting at the Auckland Town Hall in December, Mayor Wayne Brown said the council couldn’t keep relying on debt to solve financial problems.
He proposed refreshing the fiscal rules, finding savings and introducing new financial budgeting tools.
“If we do the things I propose in the LTP [long-term plan] we can keep residential rates [increases] to 7.5 per cent in year one, down to 3.5 per cent in year two, 8 per cent in year three almost — due to the City Rail Link operating costs — and after that we can get down to rate increases near inflation.”
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has said the council couldn’t keep relying on debt to solve financial problems. Photo / Michael Craig
Eighty-year-old Wattle Downs resident Patricia, who did not want her surname used, said she understood the reasons behind the increases, but forking out more money on rates would squeeze her budget even further.
Patricia lives alone after her husband died many years ago. Her rates increased about 11 per cent last year and as she prepares for further increases in the years ahead, she has to think twice about what she gets done around her house, which is getting run down and needs a lot of work.
“Life isn’t exactly easy, but my mother grew up in a single-parent house. Her father died when she was just a baby and she learned to budget and she sort of taught me how to budget. So I guess I will budget accordingly. It’s getting harder and harder.”
She is paying just over $3000 a year, about 10 per cent of her income, in rates. A 7.5 per cent increase is another $227 a year.
Paying that quarterly became too much and she now pays them fortnightly.
“At the moment I’m not spending as much money as I used to so [a rates rise next year] will have an impact.”
Julia Gabel is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on data journalism. She joined the Herald in 2020.
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