NZ First to campaign on foreign investment, gun crime on the rise in Auckland and King Charles tours Australia and Samoa. Video / NZ Herald / Getty / AFP
Auckland homeowners can expect a dip in council valuations when new figures are released in early 2025.
OneRoof reports Auckland’s average property value fell 4% to $1.31 million between 2021 and 2024.
Council’s Rhonwen Heath said the revaluation ensures rates are fairly shared, despite not changing total rates revenue.
Auckland homeowners can expect a likely dip in their council valuations but will have to wait to find out until the city-wide valuations are released early next year.
The capital values (CVs) are a major source of fascination for property-mad Aucklanders and involve the council estimating the value of every residential and commercial property in the region.
One real estate agent wondered how properties that have had issues with flooding would be reflected in the new valuations, saying developers are not touching them.
The council would not say if the latest average residential property value has risen, fallen, or stayed about the same before the new data is released early next year.
The data will cover 547,350 residential, 43,663 business and 30,186 farm and lifestyle properties.
OneRoof figures show Auckland’s average property value dipped 4% to $1.31 million between the 2021 and 2024 valuation period.
The average property value at the start of October was $1.27m, 2% below May’s figure.
Auckland Council head of rates, revaluations and data management, Rhonwen Heath, said the new CVs will be released in early 2025.
The CVs were due to go out in late 2024 but were pushed back after the Office of the Valuer-General, who audits the figures, requested additional work before public release, she said.
“The Valuer-General has very high standards, which reflects the importance of this work and we are committed to meeting those.
“The council, alongside our independent property valuers, are committed to ratepayers receiving values that reflect the market as of May 1, 2024 as accurately as possible.
“Ensuring there is a robust and consistent process for determining the property valuations used to set rates is vital to ensure rates are fairly shared between property owners,” said Heath.
She said the extra time to get property valuations right will help Aucklanders have confidence that the values used to determine rates from July next year have been accurately and consistently calculated.
The revaluation exercise does not change the total amount of rates revenue the council collects but helps distribute rates fairly between ratepayers.
Tom Rawson, a real estate agent in South Auckland, said CVs play a part in people buying and selling homes, but online portals such as OneRoof were more accurate because they were updated more frequently.
“OneRoof is updated all the time. If there is a sale down the road then the estimate changes, whereas a CV is every three to four years,” he said.
Homeowners were often happen when their new CVs were revealed but things became complicated when prices subsequently fell, he said.
“Members of the public still mention them [CVs]. ‘I see the CV is $1 million, what do they want for this?’ and it can be completely irrelevant. They have got to look at recent sales and what is moving around the area. That is the best gauge,” said Rawson.
Valuing properties at the stroke of a brush will be challenging, citing land with flooding issues, says real estate agent Tom Rawson.
He said prices peaked in 2021, but a market slump had led to lower prices and the new CVs should reflect that.
This year, valuing properties at the stroke of a brush would be challenging, said Rawson, citing land with flooding issues.
“The demand for a property with a natural hazardous history is minimal.
“In pockets of Māngere, houses are on 800sq m sections, which could get six or seven properties, but a developer won’t go near them because they were underwater during Cyclone Gabrielle.
“I wonder if the flooding and natural hazard-type issues will be reflected in CVs. It’s a pretty complex thing because so many things have changed since that last valuation period,” Rawson said.
