Ben McNulty: Wellington City Councillor reveals rates bill unlikely to change as housing valuations dip

Wellington housing valuations have taken a dive, with no suburb unscathed. 

QV valuations show house values have fallen 24.4 percent since 2021, with the average house value now sitting just under $1.1 million.

Auckland valuations are expected to show little movement since 2021. 

City Councillor Ben McNulty says it won't change rates bills much.

"The council has decided it needs 13 percent more money from rate-payers to run the city for next year, which means rates have to go up to meet that amount."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ray and Bridge, which big day. If you're a Wellington
rate payer, qv have released the new rating valuations. This
is where they officially work out how much your house
is worth for the purpose of setting rates. And if
you've been following the property market, it might't be a
shock to you that the average Wellington property is worth
twenty four point four percent less than it was when
the last set of evaluations were released in twenty twenty one.

(00:22):
It's about twenty one percent for commercial. Ben McNulty is
a Wellington City councilor.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
He's with me, Hi, Ben, afternoon, Ryan, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Does this mean cheaper rates?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Unfortunately, it doesn't. I'd like to say that it's positive news,
but it really doesn't mean much. And that's because the
Council's decided it needs thirteen percent more money from ratepayers
to run the city for next year, which means rates
have to go up to meet that amount. So really
all valuations do is they just shuffle around the balance
for each suburb pays towards that pie.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
So okay, all right, but so you you have your
your number, right that QV number, so that's come down
and then surely then your rates would come down and
you would have to separately declare that you want to
increase it is that not how it works, not really.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
So let's say the city's operating budget last year six
hundred million dollars. This year we're saying we need six
hundred and sixty million dollars. I'm not arguing that's wrong
or right, just that's the facts laid out. We have
to find sixty million dollars more than we did last year.
So really, all it means is that if city on
an average, in the city, the rates, sorry, the values
went down twenty four percent. So if your house value

(01:33):
went down thirty percent, well that's good news because you'll
have a slightly smaller rates increased than if your house
went only down twenty percent. But it all, it's quite complicated,
but it all just depends how much did your property
decrease versuy average in Wellington, and there's really only two suburbs,
Northland and Strathmore Park. They'll have increases at the lowest
in the city and actually the rural areas like Market

(01:55):
and Ahadi you are going to see the largest spikes.
For everyone else, it's going to be unfortunately, you know,
somewhere in the realm of four to fifteen percent rates increases.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
So not only have you just lost because for many
people their houses their only real asset, right, not only
have you just potentially lost a quarter of your wealth,
you're also going to keep paying fifteen percent more in rates.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
That's the unfortunate reality of living in Wellington. Yeah, I
mean last year of councilor Calvert and I with different
sides of the spectrum, right, but we try to bring
an amendment to the table saying let's just have an
option of a ten percent rates increase. What would it
take to get there? So just to review And the
council voted that down comprehensively twelve votes to six. So
that council as a majority are not interested in looking

(02:41):
at are their options for lower rates on the table.
They've just accepted these are the rates increases and Wellingtonians
will have to get grin and.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Barrett, they're still getting their bike a golden mile thing.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
They're still getting their golden mile and.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Oh oh they'll be happy about that. So you're you're
twenty five percent poorer, rates are going up fifteen percent,
but you can bike down Lampton Key, thank you, Ben,
Ben McNulty Runnings and City councilor with us this evening

Speaker 2 (03:07):
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