Rating valuations

Property revaluations December 2025

New property valuations for the Waipā District have been audited and approved by the Office of the Valuer-General. The new values will come into effect for rating purposes on July 1, 2026.

Find 2025 valuations

About rating valuations

A rating valuation assesses your property's value at a specific point in time. It considers recent sales in your area, property characteristics, and local market trends. Revaluations are required by law every three years and are used to help us calculate what your share of rates will be.

The most recent property valuations for the Waipā District were released in December 2025, dated as at August 1, 2025. New properties built after the revaluation date are valued under the market conditions at August 1, 2025 to ensure uniformity across the district.

To find a property's rates and valuation details, go to our property and rates search.

How rating valuations are calculated

Rating valuations are calculated using a process called mass appraisal. In its simplest sense, valuers consider all relevant property sales in an area around the date of the valuation. A market trend is established and applied to similar properties in the area.

In addition, a number of assessments of individual properties are completed every year as a result of building consents issued, subdivisions, sales inspections, objections and ratepayer requests to update their rating value.

Sales data is then used to identify market trends, which are applied to the group your property belongs to. This approach allows for accurate valuations even without inspecting the interior of each property.

Rating valuation notices include three separate values:

Land Value: This reflects the estimated price of the bare land, including work such as drainage and excavation.
Improvement Value: This represents the value of buildings and other structures/improvements (eg. landscaping or fencing) added to the land. It is not intended to indicate their actual construction cost.
Capital Value: This is the estimated price your property would sell for at the date of the valuation. It includes both the land and improvements (like buildings), but excludes chattels, stock, crops, machinery, or trees. Residential capital values include GST, while other property types do not.

Understanding your valuation

Land value is the value of the land only, based on its highest and best use. Capital Value is the total value of land and buildings. Value of improvements is the difference between Capital Value and Land Value. It is not the cost to rebuild or insure your property.

Who carries out the valuations?

Quotable Value, an independent valuation service provider, carries out property valuations on behalf of Waipā District Council.

To ensure uniformity and fairness, the Rating Valuation Act 1998 sets the rules for how rating valuations are made and maintained. Rating values are independently audited by the Office of the Valuer-General, a department of Land Information New Zealand.

Quotable Value maintain detailed records for every property in the Waipā District, including floor and land area, building age, condition, and location. Properties with similar features - such as land area, building age, condition, and location - are grouped together.

Legislation requires that revaluations are conducted at least every three years in New Zealand.

Please note that the rating valuation provided by Quotable Value (on behalf of Council) is not the same as a current market valuation. A current market valuation is something you can choose to pay for and usually includes a detailed look inside and outside your home, along with an assessment of recent comparable sales.

Objecting to a valuation

Note: the objection period for the 2025 district-wide revaluations closed on Thursday, February 5, 2026.

If you believe your property has been incorrectly valued, you can lodge a formal objection. This must be done within the timeframe stated on your valuation notice, usually within 30 working days of the values being publicly notified.

Objections can be lodged:

on Council's website - on the link below
an objection form can be posted out on request or picked up from our council offices in Te Awamutu or Cambridge
by mail or email to rates@waipadc.govt.nz, by providing the required information as shown below

Written objections should be posted to -

Rates Team, Waipā District Council, Freepost 167662, Private Bag 2402, Te Awamutu 3840

For your objection to be considered, you will need to provide the following information:

valuation reference number
address of the property
a daytime contact telephone number
your mailing address (and email if applicable)
your reason for objecting
an estimate of what you believe the values should be. You may appoint someone else to act on your behalf.

What happens if I lodge an objection?

A valuer will review your property to verify the property records and update them where necessary. The outcome of your objection will be advised to you in writing. If you are still not satisfied, you may seek to have your objection heard by the Land Valuation Tribunal. You will need to pay a hearing fee.

At the Land Valuation Tribunal hearing you will be required to state your estimate of the value and provide evidence to support your claim. This evidence would normally be information about sales of similar properties which occurred near the date of the valuation being objected to. The Land Valuation Tribunal will make a decision based on the evidence presented.

If your objection is accepted, your valuation will be adjusted accordingly.

If you need more help you can also email rates@waipadc.govt.nz or call us on 0800 WAIPADC (924 724) and ask for the rating team.

FAQs

How are rating valuations used to calculate rates?

Waipā uses a capital value rating system to help us work out everyone's fair share of rates.

At a very basic level, there are three steps:

Council works out how much income is needed from rates in order to run the district. This is done through the Long-term Plan or Annual Plan process.
Some rates are for specific things such as water supply and kerbside recycling collections. These are called targeted rates and are charged only to the properties that use these services. Targeted rates are not calculated using the capital value method.
Money collected from the general rate is used to fund things that benefit the general good of the district like roads, park maintenance and community facilities. This is where capital value comes in – the total general rate amount is spread across the district in amounts proportional to each property's capital value compared to the total value of the district.

Each property in the district pays the same rate in the dollar for general rates.

For full details of how rates are calculated see the Funding Impact Statement in our 2025-26 Annual Plan.

How do revaluations change my rates?

The key thing to know is property revaluations don’t impact or increase the amount of money we collect in rates. Instead, revaluations help us work out everyone's fair share of rates.

A change in your property's value doesn't mean that your rates will increase or decrease by the amount of the change.

If you think of the Council’s rates income as a pie, the size of the pie does not get any bigger as a result of the revaluation. However, a ratepayer’s slice of pie might get bigger or smaller depending on how their property value has changed in relation to the average change of the district.

How have values changed?

Residential and lifestyle property values have fallen on average due to national trends following the market peak in 2021.

Residential properties have generally decreased in value, while commercial and industrial properties have mostly stayed the same or increased. Rural and lifestyle properties have mixed changes. District-wide average changes are:

Residential -7.2%
Lifestyle -13%
Dairy -3.7%
Pastoral +3.0%
Industrial +11.6%
Commercial +0.5%

Your property may have changed more or less than these averages.

The changes:

Residential	Average CV % change	Average LV % change
Cambridge	-6.2%	-12.0%
Leamington	-6.6%	-14.0%
Te Awamutu	-8.8%	-9.6%
Pirongia	-1.3%	-15.5%
Ōhaupō	-7.2%	-28.5%

Lifestyle	Average CV % change	Average LV % change
Te Awamutu	-10.4%	-13.1%
Cambridge	-11.3%	-12.7%

Commercial	Average CV % change	Average LV % change
District wide	+0.5%	-13%

Industrial	Average CV % change	Average LV % change
District wide	+11.6%	+15.5%

Rural (district wide)	Average CV % change	Average LV % change
Dairy	-3.7%	-4.7%
Pastoral	+3.0%	+2.5%

Is this the market value of my house?

A rating valuation is an assessment of a property's value at a specific point in time. This assessment considers recent sales in your area, property characteristics, and local market trends.

The rating valuation provided by Quotable Value (on behalf of Council) is not the same as a current market valuation. A market valuation is something you can choose to pay for and usually includes a detailed look inside and outside your home, along with an assessment of recent comparable sales.

What if my property value goes down – what does that mean for my rates bill?

Rates are calculated based on the total funding council needs to provide services across the district - not just on individual property values.

When property values are updated, they’re used to fairly distribute the overall rates requirement among all ratepayers. If your property value has decreased more than others, your rates may go down. But if others have dropped more, your share might increase. It’s the relative change in value compared to other properties that determines your rates bill.

What if my property value goes up – what does that mean for my rates bill?

An increase in your property’s value doesn’t automatically mean your rates will rise. Rates are based on the total amount council needs to fund services across the district, not just your individual property value.

Updated property values are used to fairly distribute this cost among all ratepayers. If your property value has increased more than others, your share of the rates may go up. If most properties have increased similarly, your rates might stay the same or change only slightly. It’s the relative change in value compared to other properties that affects your rates bill.