Ryan Bridge crunches new property data with Cotality as Auckland prices fall by 9%. Video / Herald NOW
Property values in Auckland’s outer suburbs have held up better than the 9% regional drop.
Properties closer to the city centre saw valuations fall by about 14%, resulting in lower rates.
Council chief finance officer Ross Tucker said rate changes depend on how property values compare to the 9% average fall.
Auckland’s long-awaited new council valuations have finally been released.
Following month of delays, the new CVs were posted online this morning on the “find your property rates or valuation” page of Auckland Council’s website.
An early look at the valuation data shows average residential values have dropped 9% since the last CVs were released in 2021.
Suburban areas on the Hibiscus Coast, Albany, Hobsonville, Greenhithe and residential areas in rural Rodney and Franklin have held up better than the average 9% drop in property values across the Auckland region.
In Rodney, there was no change between the two valuations, and the 800 properties on Great Barrier Island shot up by an average of 38%.
Rural areas like Pukekohe have fared better than the inner city suburbs. Photo / Richard Robinson
Conversely, many properties closer to the city centre, including Mt Albert, Mt Eden, Avondale, Ponsonby, Herne Bay, One Tree Hill, Royal Oak and Onehunga have seen their valuations fall by about 14%, which means they will pay less than this year’s 5.8% household rate increase.
In areas suffering reduced demand for homes on often large sections with redevelopment potential, such as Māngere, Henderson, Massey, Glen Innes and Panmure, there are large value declines.
The new valuations were released online this morning and will be emailed or posted to property owners from Friday.
Today’s release follows the green light from the Valuer-General approving the valuations for 630,000 residential, commercial and farm/lifestyle properties across the Auckland region.
Council chief finance officer Ross Tucker said owners of properties whose value change fared better than the average 9% drop would pay more in rates.
Owners of properties that fared worse than the average drop would pay less.
Tucker said the valuations did not change how much the council collected in rates from the 5.8% increase for households, but allowed rates to be fairly shared.
The CVs are a massive source of fascination for property-mad Aucklanders when it comes to buying and selling homes.
Nick Goodall, head of research at Core Logic, said the new CVs were relatively in line with market changes between 2021 and 2024, describing them as “old news”.
He said an increase in the number of valuation models, such as OneRoof and Core Logic, gave people a good feel for the current value of their property.
“For those who want to understand how it flows through to their rates, then [the new CVs are] really important,” he said.
Tucker said the CVs were not for estimating the current market value of properties or for mortgage and insurance purposes, but to share rates between properties.
For properties damaged during the 2023 storm, Tucker said it was difficult to quantify the overall effect due to the number of variables.
In storm-hit Muriwai, property values have risen by 12%.
In Muriwai, severely damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle, property prices had risen by 12%, while values had fallen by 16% in Sandringham and 10% in Henderson.
Tucker said the last council valuations in 2021 were completed close to the market peak.
“Between then and May 2024, the economy and property market generally trended down. Therefore, as most people would expect, the May 2024 capital values ... are lower than the previous 2021 CVs for many properties.”
The council’s chief economist Gary Blick said the last two Auckland rating valuations coincided with “markedly different stages” in the economic cycle.
In 2021, the Official Cash Rate (OCR) was at an all-time low.
“We saw exceptionally low mortgage rates and strong upward pressure on property prices. The 2021 rating valuations reflected those higher prices.”
In contrast, the 2024 valuations occurred when the OCR had been lifted to its recent high of 5.5%.
“Higher interest rates cooled buyer demand, leading to a decline in property prices,” Blick said.
“The recent economic cycle – with its unusually steep climb and fall – helps explain why some properties have had swings between the two rating valuations."
The overall CV movements between the two sets of CVs are:
