RATES IN WELLINGTON

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1929, Page 11

RATES IN WELLINGTON

ADVANCE IN VALUATIONS. " SOME REMARKABLE INCREASES ' ‘ ; ' ■ The rate demands for the city of Wei* lington —which rates on unimproved values —for 1929-30 are now being issued, and many property owners are receiving surprises which moVo them to remark forcibly and to complain forcibly to the rates office officials. There are also those . who are pleasantly surprised by lesser demands; says the Evening Post, but whether more demands are up than down cannot bo arrived at by argument as ; ; calculation, nor, in such a complicated business as this, is it easy even to generalise, beyond that there appears to be a shifting of the burden or rate revenue for the council away from’ the older sec-, tions of the city to the newer districts or to, those areas which have gone ahead comparatively faster than others. Tho newspaper quoted says: There have been advances in all valuations, varying very widely in percentage of increase, from perhaps as low as 10 per cent, to up to 100 and 200 per cent:; according to tho progress made in various sections of the city since the previous valuation was made six or seven years ago. Thus, to deal with residential properties first, a property in such a long settled section of the town as Thorndon might have been valued at the time of • the previous valuation at, say, £5OO, and to-day tho valuation has been increased to £5OO, an increase of ‘2O per cent. At Miramar, Karori, parts of Kilbirnie, Ngaio, or Khandallah quite attrac- ‘ tive sections could be bought a-few years '• ago at, say, £2OO, but those same sections to-day may be put down at £4OO, a 100 per cent, increase. In the city proper certain long-recognised business areas have gone ahead steadily, whereas others, Courtenay Place, for instance, have during the last few years taken a great leap in values, and here itf tho comparison of tho 10 to 20 per cent, and : tho 100 per cent, increase again.• Wher-J ever tho percentage increase is small tho tendency is for the rate demand to fall; wherever that percentage is large tho demand goes up.”