Rating valuations

About rating valuations

A rating valuation is a three-yearly assessment of a property's value in relation to current market values.

We use independent valuers, Quotable Value (QV), to assess the value of all properties as of 1 September 2024. These new values will be used to calculate rates starting from 1 July 2025. It has no impact on this financial year’s rates.

Use the Property Search tool to find a property's rates and valuation details.

To provide fair, transparent property rates, we use standard rating valuations governed by the Rating Valuation Act 1998 and audited by the Office of the Valuer-General.

Valuations and rates

We collect a fixed amount of rates each year, as specified in the current Annual Plan or Long-term Plan.

Rating valuations help us work out everyone’s share of rates, but it doesn’t increase the total amount of rates we collect. We don’t collect more rates just because values have increased, and we don’t collect less rates if values have decreased.

Think of the total amount the Council needs to collect from rates as a pie. Once set by the Annual Plan or Long-term Plan, the size of the pie doesn’t change, but the way we cut the pie depends on the value of all properties. Your property’s valuation affects how big your slice of the pie is.

In 2024, it’s likely the value of most homes in Wellington is lower than during the very high peak of 2021.

If the value of your property has gone down more than the average, then your share of the general rate will go up by less than the average rates increase. If your property’s value has reduced less than the average, then your share will go up by more than the average rates increase.

Example of how the rating valuation effects rates

If you think of rates as a pie, the size of the pie doesn’t get bigger because of the new valuations. However, a ratepayer’s slice of the pie might get bigger or smaller depending on how their property value has changed in relation to the average change of values in the city.

In a city of three properties, each one is worth $1,000,000, so the city’s total value is $3,000,000. Each property makes up 33% of the city’s value, so they each pay 33% of the total rates requirement.

Three years later, we do another rating valuation. Now the city’s total value is $2,400,000. Their share of the total rates requirement has changed based on updated values.

Your valuation components

Capital value

The capital value is the probable price that would be paid for the property at the valuation date. It’s the total of the land value and improvements value – the total value of your property. It doesn’t include chattels, stock, crops, machinery or trees. Residential values include GST, other property types do not.

Land value

Land value is the probable price that would be paid for the bare land at the valuation date. It includes any development, such as drainage, excavation, filling, retaining walls, reclamation, grading, levelling, vegetation clearing, soil improvement, or protection from erosion or flooding.

Improvement value

Improvement value is the difference between the capital value and the land value. It reflects the value of the property’s buildings and other structures.

Objecting to your valuation

You can object if you’ve improved your property and received an updated rating valuation.

The objection process and timeframes are on QV’s website or on the back of your rating valuation notice.

If you don't meet the objection deadline, Quotable Value will consider your concerns in the next revaluation.

Property improvements

Between three-yearly revaluations, we send details of all building consents to Quotable Value, so improvements being made can get included in the valuation.

Before 1 July or when renovation work is complete, Quotable Value checks the property and amends the valuation to include the work. If the project is not complete before 1 July, values will be re-assessed to include work completed at that point and checked each year until finished. You will receive a notice reflecting the revised value. This notice supersedes any previous valuations.

If you've done major work on your home that didn't need consent, for example rebuilding a kitchen, you can contact Quotable Value to include the improvements in the next revaluation.

For more information on rating values, visit About Rating Valuations on QV’s website. You can also email ratingsupport@qv.co.nz or phone 0800 786 822 to talk to Quotable Value directly.

Timeline for the property valuation process

September 2024: Rating valuation starts.

November 2024:  Audit by Valuer-General.

Mid-December 2024: Release of valuation results.

February 2025: Objection period ends – approximately six weeks after the valuation results are released, likely mid to late February 2025. Exact dates will be confirmed once updated valuation notices are sent out in December.

March-June 2025: Objection results to be communicated to individual ratepayers.