Rural communities on the outskirts of the Super City are being hit with “staggering” rate increases coming “out of left field”, say two local politicians.
Residents in rural towns such as Waiuku and Helensville are facing rate rises of more than 23% in some cases, Franklin local board member Gary Holmes and Rodney local board member Mark Dennis said.
The increases are a stark contrast to the council’s 5.8% average residential rates rise this year, they said.
The pair acknowledged the steep rates stem from the new property valuations but argued the council has failed to highlight the impact on rural residential communities.
“This should have been forecast clearly and transparently, so our communities knew what to expect and households could budget for this extra pressure during a cost-of-living crisis,” Dennis said.
Holmes said: “We supported a reasonable rate increase to meet Auckland’s needs, but the reality is that the new rural residential general rate has landed an unfair punishment on our communities.
”How can anyone plan or budget when those sort of rate increases comes [sic] out of left field ... they are not only staggering but completely unjustified,” he said.
The issue has stemmed from the 2024 revaluations used to set this year’s rates, in which a 9.1% drop in property values was registered across the city. Values of rural and lifestyle properties held steady and in some cases increased.
Under the rates allocation mechanism, rural home owners whose properties rose in value or fell by less than the region-wide 9.1 % average now face higher rates.
Holmes noted past revaluation exercises had penalised urban areas, including the inner-city suburbs, but said rural towns do not enjoy the benefits urban suburbs receive, such as public transport and enhanced community facilities.
“We are being disproportionately penalised through our rates while receiving a fraction of the services,” he said.
Dennis said that before the next revaluation update in three years, he wanted to see safety measures put in place to prevent a repeat of this year’s unexpected rates burden, and that there should be a cap on how high rates could increase.
“If your property hasn’t had any development, then you should never see a rates increase of more than 15% in one year, regardless of the new valuation,” he said.
The council’s financial policy manager, Andrew Duncan, said that in the recent rating valuation many outer areas, such as Rodney and Franklin, maintained their values, leading to rates higher than the average increase of 5.8%.
During consultation on the annual plan, Duncan said the council indicated some urban and rural property rates would be higher and lower than the average.
Federated Farmers Auckland president Alan Cole said that since the formation of the Super City, the property revaluation process has generally favoured rural and rural residential areas. Their property values have tended to increase less than those in urban areas, resulting in lower-than-average rate hikes.
However, last year’s revaluation exercise reversed that trend and the impact was reflected in this year’s rates bills.
Cole expressed concern over delays in the 2024 revaluation process, which made it difficult to inform rural residents about potential impacts during the consultation period for this year’s budget.
Although the main 2025/2026 consultation document included information on proposed rate changes for residential and business property owners, he noted the word “rural” was missing.
“This isn’t good enough,” Cole said, saying Federated Farmers wants this oversight addressed in the future so farmers and rural property owners are fully informed.
The pair’s complaint follows revelations by Herald data journalist Chris Knox that this year’s rate take is jumping by 9%, considerably more than the official 5.8% residential rates increase or even the 7.2% figure for commercial rates.
This year the total rates take will be $3.49 billion, an increase of 9% from $3.20b last year. Total residential rates will be about $2.29b, up 8.6% from $2.11b.
Analysis by Knox has also found large errors in some of the new rates bills sent out to ratepayers, which the council said appeared to be due to human error.
Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesman Sam Warren said more than 600,000 households rely on the council to get their rates right, calling it a massive blunder to overcharge people in their rates bill.
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