Land values in the Maitland area have risen by less than four per cent over the past three years.
More than 30,000 Maitland home and business owners will receive a letter from the NSW Valuer General over the next couple of days advising of changes in the value of their land since it was last assessed in 2011.
Valuer General Simon Gilkes says the valuations are for land only, not including homes or other improvements, and are based on real estate sales.
“The increase of just over three per cent is a medium sort of increase in New South Wales this year,” he said.
“The metropolitan area experienced much stronger increases but across much of regional New South Wales land values remained fairly stable.”
Mr Gilkes says the total value of land in the Maitland Council region is now at $5.81 billion.
“The land values are based on the analysis of sales of properties in the market, so they reflect what’s actually happening in the real estate market.
“If landowners would like to know more about the valuations, they can go to the Valuer General’s website at www.valuergeneral.nsw.gov.au or call our office on 1800 110038.
“The new valuations will be used by councils for rating from the middle of 2015, land values are one of the factors that councils consider when setting their rates, but there are a number of other factors that councils also factor into the process.”
Graham Tolhurst from Maitland Council says the change in land values will not have an immediate impact on the next financial year’s rates.
“In relation to Maitland Council we’ve already had our rate variation determined by the state government for the coming financial year,” he said.
“So we know that our total rate income will increase by 7.25 per cent regardless of what adjustments there have been in land valuations.”
Source: ABC Online, 14 January 2015