Property valuations

The capital value is determined by recent sales in the area, which creates a market trend. Even if you have not made improvements to your land or property, its value may have increased because of strong sales in your area.

It is not practical to inspect every property, nor is it necessary. Council holds a lot of information about properties. Council tells QV about major changes like subdivisions and building consents. Roadside inspections can also confirm other changes.

Yes, but only some of the information.  The council is required by law to make some information public.  The contents of your valuation notice are contained within a public register known as the District Valuation Roll. This is available for public inspection at council offices for a limited time. You can access any information held about your property and ask for corrections to be made.

You can ask for your name to be removed from the District Valuation Roll. Visit a council service centre or phone us on 0800 920 029 or 09 401 5200.

Phone Quotable Value on 0800 787 284. Alternatively, go to QV's website for online property information.

What is a Rating Revaluation?

Every three years, all properties in the Far North District are revalued to help set the rates for the next three years. The revaluation determines three key values:

• Land Value (LV) - the value of the land only
• Capital Value (CV) - the likely sale price of the property on the effective date
• Value of Improvements (VI) - the difference between CV and LV

Far North District Council rates are based on land value, so changes to your land value directly affect your rates.

The valuation process is carried out by our contracted valuer, Quotable Value (QV). Their team uses recent market data (sales and productivity), council records (such as building consents and subdivisions), and insights from real estate agents to assess property values across the district. The results are independently audited by the Office of the Valuer General (OVG) to ensure accuracy and fairness.

2025 Revaluation timeline

• Effective Date: 1 September 2025
• Owner Notification: 25 March 2026
• Objection Period: 1 April - 8 May 2026
• Rates Strike: 1 July 2026

How You Can Help

• Have you made significant improvements to your property that didn’t need a consent?
• Has the land use or commercial use of your property changed?
• Is there any incorrect information on file about your property such as the number of bedrooms, bathrooms?
• Has flooding or erosion impacted the way you use your land?
• If QV doesn’t know about improvements or changes to your property, these cannot be reflected in your Rating Value.

If you said yes to any of the above, you can quickly and easily update those details online with QV via the Update My Property tool before 1 September 2025

What helps:

• Photos of the significant changes such as renovations
• Receipts or documentation
• Notes about the work done
• Details of any changes to commercial operations on the site or if they’ve ceased

What did the 2022 Property Valuation tell us?

The 2022 revaluation for the Far North District was conducted during a period of significant market volatility. The effective date was 1 October 2022, which coincided with the peak of the property market in the district. Leading up to this date, sales activity was high, and market conditions were buoyant, providing strong evidence for valuers to support increased property values across many locations and categories.

However, following the revaluation, the market experienced a sharp decline. This created confusion for many property owners who received their valuation notices months later and compared them to current market conditions rather than the effective date. As a result, the council received a record number of objections, 1,057 in 2022, compared to 731 in 2016 and 480 in 2019.

Key insights from the 2022 valuation:

• Strong Market conditions over the past three years with increases across all areas. The market has flattened and, in some cases, receding within the current economic climate.
• Remote townships which previously had a low land value base have had significant percentage increases since the 2019 revaluation, predominantly as they are coming off a low base.
• Significant increase in demand for land, both industrial and commercial
• Low vacancy rates for all commercial/industrial property types in main townships
• Changes in zoning under the proposed district plan are driving changes in use and land values have reacted accordingly, namely the mixed business zone.
• Small pastoral blocks seeing increases in line with bigger lifestyle blocks - demand for these recreational type blocks, even for isolated areas
• Large increase in lifestyle holdings effect on smaller pastoral and dairy units

What did the 2019 Property Valuation tell us?

The 2019 Far North revaluation has mostly recorded increases in value across the board from the previously 2016 valuation date. The overall average residential movement from the 2016 valuations is 30 per cent on Capital Value and 35 per cent on Land Value. (Different locations have increased at varied levels. This is the average across the district).

Key points to keep in mind - a lower-value property may have moved at a greater percentage than a higher-valued property in the same area. The lifestyle market has also increased at a similar level to that of the residential market. Other sectors of note:

• Dairy and pastoral land movement was 20 per cent on average across the district
• Horticulturally categorised property had the largest increase with an average land value increase of 49 per cent
• Forestry the least with an average movement of 3.6 per cent on Land value from 2016
• Commercial and industrial land values shifted 30-35 per cent on average. Location was a factor to growth in this sector.
• Across all sectors in the Far North district, the average Capital Value movement was 25 per cent  and 30 per cent for Land Value movement from the previous 2016 valuation levels.

What did the 2016 property valuation tell us?

The 2016 property valuation revealed that values increased in all areas except Kaikohe, Kaitāia township and Awanui. Moerewa saw no change. Looking at the Far North as a whole, land values rose by 11.7 per cent and capital values rose by 12 per cent. That increase largely reversed losses recorded by the 2013 valuation.