CITY VALUATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 88, 13 April 1935, Page 10

CITY VALUATIONS

ASTONISHED OWNERS

MORE SURPRISES COMING

EATE STORMS DUE

To a statement published in "The Post" last Tuesday that "the genera] impression is that values have been written down in all parts of Wellington, with perhaps a more marked percentage reduction in business than in residential areas," two correspondents have taken lively exception, and have stated cases where valuations have been increased, and substantially at that.

It was only after considerable inquiries had been made that the above statement was written, and further inquiries indicate that generally it is correct, but there are very marked exceptions which much puzzle the owners of those properties if they have, under the eye of the valuers acting for the Government Valuation Department (not the City Council, which does not fix property values, but works for rating purposes, on the valuation roll prepared by the Valuation Department) gained a higher value during the hard years that have passed than they possessed in 1929, the year of boom property prices.

Further, the statement that "there has been a more marked percentage reduction in^ business than in residential areas also generally holds good, and it is that which will cause, residential ratepayers the liveliest, but not the happiest, of surprises when the City Council, in a few weeks' time, strikes the rates for the year. The greater percentage reduction in the inner areas of the city is equivalent, when rate revenue requirements?, of the City Council are being allocated among ratepayers, to an increase in the valuations of suburban and residential properties. SUBURBS' WILL PAY MORE. The City Council requires about £500,000 per year to carry on the various essential services, to meet interest and sinking fund outgoings, and to pay for such works as are done out of revenue. If the unimproved value of the City (business and suburban areas) is high the rate "in the pound" will be low; if the unimproved value of the whole City is largely reduced the rate "in the pound" must go up to bring in the same £500,000. If all valuations are written down in the same percentage then the actual money demand from owners of property will remain the same, but should one section of the City rejoice in a 20 per cent, reduction while another section gets merely a 5 per cent, writing down 'of values, the actual money demand from the 20 per cent, fortunates is going to be pleasantly reduced while the 5 per cent, section is going to be asked to pay more. More shortly, the new valuations mean that the city area is going to be relieved of a substantial share of the rating load which must be made up by higher demands upon owners of suburban property. PROPERTIES AX MIRAMAR. It is quite impossible to make more than general statements as to the position at large, for there are thousands of properties in Wellington/and only by a detailed analysis can the effect of the revaluations be precisely learned. Particular cases are available. Some of them are supplied by astonished • property owners. ; A Miramar Heights ratepayer; who simply signs himself as such, states that the unimproved. valuation of his property has been increased by 100 per cent, and he mentions the case of a Karori /property, owned by a friend, which has been increased on paper value from £260 to £400. He continues: "I find it difficult to reconcile the valuation fixed on my property. Land adjoining my property was sold in 1928 for £260, but was handed back, and it can now be purchased for £150. I have been offered one of the sections for £75. No sale has taken place here for six years." A LAND BOOM? Another Miramar correspondent, who, in spite of the shock, signs himself "Sunny Miramar," writes: "Is there a land boom? Wellington citizens will no doubt be pleased to learn that another 'prosperity corner' has been turned by our good friends the Government, this time by the Valuation Department in the form of new valuations for city and suburban property. As the exchange ramp was a most wonderful thing for New Zealand in the eyes of the Government, notwithstanding all that you said about it by calling 20s sterling 25s New Zealand currency, so now they think that by boosting up land values from 20 per cent, to 158 per cent, more than they were in the boom years of 1928-30 they will bring prosperity again to the cities of (New Zealand." The correspondent states that by a careful comparison of the old and new valuations of his properties at Miramar he finds that they are in the total up by £650, or a 45 per cent, increase. (He encloses with his letter a statement of the separate old and new valuations.) . "How on earth can vacant, land m distant suburbs increase in value in a period, of deep depression from 20 to 158 per cent, over its boom period value when everybody knows that vacant land has no commercial value today?" he asks. "Must we all learn to live on air and clothe ourselves as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden, and so eliminate the need to spend our money except on rates and taxes,, income tax and. interest, for these must be paid though the people perish?" AN IMPORTANT POINT. It is probable that many ratepayers have not, when comparing the new with the old valuations (as shown on the rate demands for last year) made, allowance for the fact that special legislation was passed last year allowing local bodies to strike the rates on the basis of 75 per cent, of the 1929 valuations. To make a true comparison it is necessary for property owners to look up their old valuation slips, and when this is done it will be found, in a good many cases, that the valuations are not higher than they were on the 1929 rolL Whether that is so of the figures given by the correspondents is not clear. When the position has been, examined in greater detail, as, of course, it must be by the City Council in order that it may determine the new rate in the pound, the variations in valuations can be accurately stated; that cannot be done at present. There will be shocks in plenty, for by inquiries of individual ratepayers it is learned that in one suburb the amendments in value range from reductions of 15 per cent, to nil, and over the road to an increase of 5 per cent., but there are no complaints from that nearby suburb of such shocks as have been experienced by "Ratepayer" and "Sunny Miramar.".

Reductions in the mid-city area are said to range from 15 up to 25 and 40 per cent. The value of improvements has been apparently generally written down at