Property Valuations

2020 General Revaluation

Rotorua property revaluations were undertaken in 2020 and notices have been issued to property owners.

Valuations are required to be done every three years and are used for rating purposes.

The 2020 revaluations were undertaken by Opteon on behalf of Rotorua Lakes Council and are as at 1 September 2020.

Property owners who disagreed with their valuation were able to lodge an objection. The period for lodging objections is now closed (the closing date was 16 March 2021).

For more information visit:

• Rating Information Database

About property valuations

Property valuations underpin how a property is rated, as in the Rotorua District the 'Capital Value' of a property is what is used for value-based rating charges (e.g. variable portion of the General Rate).

For more information see the Rates section

How properties are valued

A rating value is assigned to every property in New Zealand as required by law. Rateable values are used to provide councils with the basis for allocating some of the rates required across all properties in the district. The share of total rates each property will pay each year depends on a property's capital value (i.e. the land value plus the value of improvements such as a house and other buildings). Generally speaking, the higher a property's capital value, the higher the amount of rates to be paid.

• Capital value - This is the assessed probable price that would be paid for the property as at the date of the latest general revaluation. It does not include chattels, stock, crops, machinery or trees. Residential values include GST, other property types do not.
• Land value - This is the probable price that would be paid for the bare land as at the date of valuation. The Land Value includes any development work which may have been carried out, such as draining, excavation, filling, retaining walls, reclamation, grading, levelling, soil improvements, clearing of vegetation, fertility build-up, or protection from erosion or flooding.
• Value of Improvements - This is the difference between the capital value and the land value.

A rating valuation has many aspects to it, some of these are:

• Location
• Size
• Condition
• Character
• Quality of the construction
• Views/Outlook
• Access (drive on)
• Garaging / off street parking
• Other buildings or notable features
• Sun (aspect)
• Modernisation (kitchen and bathrooms)
• Number of bedrooms / bathrooms
• Privacy
• Access to local transportation and amenities
• Street appeal
• Noise

Every property is required to be re-valued for rating purposes at least once every 3 years in accordance with Section 9 of the Rating Valuations Act 1998. Property values can be viewed in the Council Rating Information Database. The last general revaluations were completed in 2017, with 1 July 2017 being the effective date. Any changes in rating value will not be rated upon until 1 July of the following rating year.

A Council Rating Valuation is undertaken by Council's valuation service provider (VSP) to establish property values at a specific point in time to enable council rates to be assessed and excludes the value of chattels.

A mass-appraisal approach is used. This is where a market trend is established by considering relevant property sales from your area around the time of the valuation and applying it to similar properties. It is not a detailed market valuation that includes an onsite and internal inspection of your property that you would get from a private registered valuer.

Because of the vast number of properties in the district (approx. 29,500) it is not possible to view every property individually, (although a satisfactory number of properties are looked at externally to check the accuracy of the proposed value level). Proposed values under the 3 yearly general revaluation are required to be audited and approved by the 'Valuer General of New Zealand' before being implemented.

Finding out or checking the value of a property

The Rotorua Lakes Council maintains a 'Rating Information Database' for all properties in the district. It provides publically available rating information for all properties in the Rotorua District.

Rotorua Lakes Council Rating Information Database (RID)

This facility is provided to meet the requirements of public access to rating information as required by the "Local Government (Rating) Act 2002" and is one of the ways of delivering on the principles of having a transparent and understandable rating system

The database does not include owner/ratepayer names, postal addresses, or details of the current rates position.

Regional rating and valuation information

The Rotorua District falls into two regions:

1. Bay of Plenty Region - The rating information for those properties within the Bay of Plenty Region are included in the Rotorua Lakes Council Rating Information Database (RID)
2. Waikato Region - The rating information for those properties within the Waikato Region are included in the Rating Information Database for Environment Waikato (RID)

Valuations of multiple-owned Māori freehold land

Māori freehold land is rated the same as other land, however has a different matrix to determine the rating value. Essentially, there is a discount framework for the land due to ownership structure and sites of significance.

Definition: Māori freehold land - is land which the Māori Land Court has determined to have the status of Māori freehold land as defined in Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 (Māori Land Act).

Information on the property is drawn from Māori Land Online website for Māori freehold land. This is the mechanism that is used to identify the number of owners/sites of significance and hence, apply a discount on valuation.

Valuations

All Māori freehold land has a specific valuation framework applied to it.

The valuation framework (or reduction in valuation) that is applied in the valuation of Māori freehold land is detailed on Te Puna Kōkiri web site

The reduced valuation is what Council uses for rating purposes.

The framework is as follows:

Minimum Value Criteria

There will be some instances where application of the adjustment factors could result in a

zero or negative value. This would run contrary to the view that all land has some value and

for the purposes of this rating valuation guideline a minimum value criterion of $100 per

rating unit is reasonable. If the initial general title value of the rating unit is less than $100

then this amount should be adopted.