Latest / Best of Business / Ben McNulty: Wellington City Councillor reveals rates bill unlikely to change as housing valuations dip

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

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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Right I am Bridge Rich Big Day.
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  Speaker 3: If you're a Wellington ratepayer, qv have released the new
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  Speaker 3: rating valuations. This is where they officially work out how
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  Speaker 3: much your house is worth for the purpose of setting rates.
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  Speaker 3: And if you've been following the property market, it might
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  Speaker 3: be a shock to you that the average Wellington property
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  Speaker 3: is worth twenty four point four percent less than it
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  Speaker 3: was when the last set of evaluations were released in
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  Speaker 3: twenty twenty one. It's about twenty one percent for commercial.
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  Speaker 3: Ben McNulty is a Wellington City councilor he's with me, Hi.
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  Speaker 4: Ben, afternoon, Ryan, Thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 2: Does this mean cheaper rates?
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  Speaker 4: Unfortunately, it doesn't.
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  Speaker 5: I'd like to say that it's positive news, but it
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  Speaker 5: really doesn't mean much. And that's because the Council's decided
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  Speaker 5: it needs thirteen percent more money from ratepayers to run
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  Speaker 5: the city for next year, which means rates have to
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  Speaker 5: go up to meet that amount. So really all valuations
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  Speaker 5: do is they just shuffle around the balance for each
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  Speaker 5: suburb pace towards that pie.
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  Speaker 3: So okay, all right, so you you you have your
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  Speaker 3: your number, right, that qv number, so that's come down,
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  Speaker 3: and then surely then your rates would come down and
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  Speaker 3: you would have to separately declare that you want to increase.
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  Speaker 2: It is that not how it works?
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  Speaker 4: Not really.
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  Speaker 5: So let's say the city's operating budget last year was
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  Speaker 5: six hundred million dollars. This year, we're saying we need
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  Speaker 5: six hundred and sixty million dollars. I'm not arguing whether
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  Speaker 5: that's wrong or right, just that's the facts laid out.
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  Speaker 5: We have to find sixty million dollars more than we
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  Speaker 5: did last year. So really, all it means is that
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  Speaker 5: if city on an average, in the city, the rates, sorry,
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  Speaker 5: the values went down.
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  Speaker 4: Twenty four percent.
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  Speaker 5: So if your house value went down thirty percent, well
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  Speaker 5: that's good news because you'll have a slightly smaller rates
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  Speaker 5: increase than if your house went only down twenty percent.
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  Speaker 5: But all it's quite complicated, but it all just depends
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  Speaker 5: how much did your property decrease versuy average in Wellington,
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  Speaker 5: and there's really only two suburbs, Northland and Strathmore Park.
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  Speaker 5: They'll have increases at the lowest in the city and
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  Speaker 5: actually the rural areas like market O and Ahadi you
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  Speaker 5: are going to see the largest spikes for everyone else.
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  Speaker 5: It's going to be unfortunately, you know, somewhere in the
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  Speaker 5: realm of four to fifteen percent rates increases.
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  Speaker 3: So not only have you just lost because for many
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  Speaker 3: people their houses their only real asset, right, not only
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  Speaker 3: have you just potentially lost a quarter of your wealth,
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  Speaker 3: you're also going to keep paying fifteen percent more in rates.
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  Speaker 4: That's the unfortunate reality of living in Wellington. Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: I mean last year councilor Calvert and I went different
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  Speaker 5: sides of the spectrum, right, but we tried to bring
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  Speaker 5: an amendment to the table saying let's just have an
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  Speaker 5: option of a ten percent rates increase.
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  Speaker 4: What would it take to get there?
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  Speaker 5: So just to review and the Council voted that down
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  Speaker 5: comprehensively twelve votes to six. So that council as a
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  Speaker 5: majority are not interested in looking at their options for
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  Speaker 5: lower rates on the table. They've just accepted these are
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  Speaker 5: the rates increases and Wellingtonians will have to get grin
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  Speaker 5: and Barrett.
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  Speaker 2: They still getting their bike like a Golden Mile thing.
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  Speaker 4: It's still getting nick Golden Mile and.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yep, they'll be happy about that. So you're you're
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  Speaker 3: twenty five percent poorer. Your rates are going up fifteen percent,
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  Speaker 3: but you can bike down Lampton Key. Thank you, Ben,
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  Speaker 3: Ben McNulty, Runnings and City councilor with us this evening
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  Speaker 3: for
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