Property Valuations
Rotorua District Valuation Roll
The Valuation Roll for the Rotorua District has been revised.
The revised values are now available for inspection on the Rating Information Database page. These values are as at 1 July 2023.
All owners and ratepayers of property within the Rotorua District have been posted notices of the revised values from Wednesday 29 May 2024 onwards.
About property valuations
Property valuations underpin how a property is rated. In the Rotorua District, the capital value of a property is used for value-based rating charges (such as the variable portion of the General Rate).
Every three years, Council updates your property's Rateable Value (RV). External experts conduct analysis and create the RV, which is used to help determine what your share of rates will be.
How properties are valued
Every property in New Zealand is assigned a rating value, as required by law. Councils use RVs as a starting point for allocating rates as required across all properties in the district. The total rates share that each property pays annually depends on the property's capital value (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 rates will be.
When the value of your property was assessed, the valuers considered a number of factors including:
- What properties are selling for in your neighbourhoods around the date of the revaluation
- The demand to buy or rent property in your neighbourhood
- The type of property, ie: house, townhouse, factory or shop
- Any known changes to the property since it was last valued. This is shown on the revaluation notice as Land Value, Value of Improvements, and Capital Value.
Capital value
The assessed probable price for the property as at the date of the latest general revaluation.
It doesn't include chattels, stock, crops, machinery or trees. Residential values include GST; other property types don't.
Land value
The probable price 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.
Aspects considered in a rating valuation
There are many aspects considered during rating valuations, including:
- Location
- Size
- Condition
- Character
- Quality of the construction
- Views and outlook
- Access (drive on)
- Garaging or off-street parking
- Other buildings or notable features
- Sun (aspect)
- Modernisation (kitchen and bathrooms)
- Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
- Privacy
- Access to local transportation and amenities
- Street appeal
- Noise.
How often valuations are issued
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. Valuation notices are also issued between revaluations when changes are made to properties.
Property changes include:
- Subdivision of land
- Changing land use
- Amalgamation of more than one piece of land
- Changing land use
- Erecting new buildings
- Adding/altering/demolishing existing buildings
- Changes in Resource Management Plans.
Council has copies of all survey plans and building consents. If other changes are made to a property which are likely to affect its value, please notify Council so that our records can be updated and the property's value amended if necessary.
If you missed the cut-off for general revaluation
Once the cut-off point for the general revaluation is reached, new building and alterations that were not included will be issued separately as soon as possible. The date for seeking clarification or lodging an objection to that valuation will relate to the date of issue, not to the closing date for the general revaluation.
Valuation Service Provider (VSP)
All councils are required to appoint an approved valuation firm (known as a "Valuation Service Provider" or VSP) to conduct the triennial (3-yearly) general revaluation of their City/District, plus to maintain the values where sub-divisions, amalgamations or building consents have changed properties. Rotorua Lakes Council's current VSP is Opteon Solutions.
Council rating valuations 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.
Property inspections
It is not possible to inspect every property in the district individually, and for rating valuation purposes, isn't necessary. However, a satisfactory number of properties are looked at externally to check the accuracy of the proposed value level. Where there are significant variations between actual market sales data and expected rating valuations values, inspections are also made.
Under the Rating Valuations Act 1998 (No. 69) ("the Act"), a valuer may enter the property without permission from the owner. The Act also states the Valuer must produce written evidence of authorisation to enter.
Identification must contain a reference to section 45 of the Act, the name of the authorised person and a statement of the powers conferred by subsection (1) on the authorised person.
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.
Find out the value of a property
Rotorua Lakes Council maintains a 'Rating Information Database', which provides the latest publicly available rating information for all properties in the district.
Council provides this facility 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 we deliver on the principles of having a transparent and understandable rating system.
Valuations and GST
Rating valuations include GST, if any, for residential properties. However, in most residential transactions, the parties are not registered for GST. For all other property types, GST is excluded.
Regional rating and valuation information
The Rotorua district falls into two regions:
- Bay of Plenty region
- Waikato region.
To find out more about rates for properties in the Bay of Plenty or Waikato regions, visit our Rating Information Database webpage.
Market value versus rating valuation
Rating valuations are not market valuations.
While rating valuations are based on market sales, they are a snapshot of the property market at a single point in time (e.g. current revaluation date 1 July 2023). As real estate prices generally fluctuate over time, a rating valuation should only be used as a starting point to determine what the market value of a property might be.
A property's sale price usually includes chattels, whereas rating valuations do not. The value of chattels can vary considerably between adjacent properties, depending on how new or valuable items such as carpets, curtains, heat pump, oven, dishwasher and light fittings are to a buyer. The sale price may even include other items sold with the property such as furniture, pool tables or other appliances.
