Property valuation plan a ‘surprise’

Under the plan, valuations will occur annually from 2019, rather than every two years, a move mayor Margaret O’Rourke described as having come as “a bit of a surprise”, during a question and answer session with Premier Daniel Andrews in Bendigo on Friday.

Ms O’Rourke was unavailable for further comment, but the city’s corporate performance director Kerryn Ellis said while the cost of valuation formed part of the council’s overall budget and was not attributed to individual ratepayers, the move could increase pressure on councils already squeezed by rate capping.

“If the city had to conduct property valuations on an annual basis, it would mean more cost to us because property revaluation requires specialist staff and a considerable time commitment,” she said.

“Service delivery is unlikely to be impacted by changes to the revaluation process, however, depending on who will undertake the valuations, it could mean increased cost to council.

“Over time, the state government’s rate cap will place a strain on the city’s financial sustainability and may impact its current delivery of services and infrastructure to the expanding Greater Bendigo community.”

In response to Ms O’Rourke’s question, Mr Andrews acknowledged the change would be “a challenge” for local governments, but said the state would work with councils during the “lead in” time prior to the plan taking effect.

“We need to acknowledge that the kind of bill shock that comes with the bi-annual land tax assessment – that we can do much, much better than that,” he said.

“We think just having a much more contemporary understanding of movements in the market, year on year, rather than every two years, is a much better way to go.”

Mount Alexander Shire acting corporate support director Bradley Thomas said the shire “look[ed] forward” to hearing more detail on the changes.

“Council currently conducts valuations on more than 11,500 properties in Mount Alexander Shire on a bi-annual basis by an independent contractor,” he said.

“Shifting to an annual valuation is quite different to the current approach, so we need to understand more details from the state government on the proposal.”