The Newcastle Show Hall buzzed with tension on Monday evening, 18 March 2024, as community members clamoured for answers regarding the General Valuation Roll’s implications on property values. The roll is set to influence property rates and thus, already stretched budgets.
The gathering was convened by Newcastle Municipality’s Cllr Bertie Meiring, allowing the company that conducted the Municipality’s Valuation Roll to explain how they got to the values of community members’ respective properties.
For the uninitiated, a General Valuation Roll is a comprehensive document detailing property values within a specific area. Compiled by local government, it serves as the foundation for property tax calculations, offering vital details on land size, location, and any improvements made. The roll serves a dual purpose: ensuring fair taxation and facilitating the tracking of property value changes over time. In certain instances, it may also inform assessments for other taxes such as water or sewerage rates.
As this impacts every single resident in Newcastle, a representative from DDP Property Valuation Experts provided an overview of how the steps the valuation company took when employed by the Newcastle Municipality.
“The big question that is on everybody’s lips, is how do we value a property? There are certain ways to evaluate a property. Firstly, a property is valued according to the use,” began the DDP representative. This means, that if a resident owns a property along a road in a residential area, and it is used as an office, the said property would be valued as a business and not as a house. This lined up with the necessary government legislature which stated that a property is valued according to use, and not according to zoning.
He further highlighted there were certain methodologies which had to be adhered to when evaluating a property, and these included:
- Comparable sales method: This focuses on residential, agricultural and vacant lands.
- Income Capitalisation Approach: This focuses on businesses and the income the property produces.
- Depreciated cost replacement method: This predominantly looks at properties that don’t change hands such as hospitals, schools and churches.
Shifting focus to the Newcastle context, the DDP representative explained that the company began its valuation process on 1 July 2023 and submitted its draft valuation roll to the Newcastle Municipal Council on 15 November 2023.
Residents, he noted, now had until 16 May 2024 to object to the valuation roll and if anyone missed the closing date for objections, they could appeal. However, the appeal date is still to be confirmed by the Newcastle Municipality. Yet, the valuation roll will be implemented on 1 July 2024.
Furthermore, he elaborated that processes that were followed by DDP involved aerial photography, which was then compared to other sources at the company’s disposal, as well as images from COGTA and Google. Additionally, while no physical inspections were performed, DDP conducted 360 images in Newcastle.
“To put it in layman’s terms, we have a car like the Google car. So, we basically drove up and down each and every street,” explained the DDP representative, who added the vehicle’s cameras allowed them to capture the necessary footage at premises across Newcastle. Market research was also conducted alongside the aerial footage and 360 images to inspect the industrial and business sectors.
When conducting the valuation, the home’s additions, layout and neighbouring properties were analysed to determine how much a resident’s property was worth. Therefore, residents were informed that the value of their property had been established and was currently available at the Newcastle Municipality for perusal and if anyone wanted to object, they had just over two months left to have their say.
As no physical inspections were done, a resident queried how the valuators interpreted their images when determining the homes’ values.
According to DDP, certain things were looked at, including swimming pools, carports and other structures added to a property over time. In addition, the location of the home, the property’s condition, and similar properties in the vicinity, all contributed to the valuation.
However, the biggest concern highlighted by residents was service delivery which impacted the daily lives of community members and their properties. This included sewage issues, the crime rate in certain “affluent” suburbs and failing road infrastructure, not forgetting the floods which often impact parts of Newcastle.
As pointed out, this had no impact on the company’s valuation which many noted was higher than it should be.
Moreover, other residents felt the method used by the company was flawed, as it compared houses in the same residential area. However, if a resident objected to the valuation, they could not use the same reasoning and compare similar homes in their areas.
With tensions running high, and the valuation roll to add to residents’ expenditure, one irate resident noted much to the agreement of others, “I am warning you, if we get an increase of more than 6% on our rates and taxes this year, there will be chaos in this town.”
With residents voicing their disdain for the valuation roll process and the methodology, unsatisfied with the DDP reasoning on how the process was carried out, Cllr Bertie Meiring urged Newcastle residents to visit the Newcastle Municipality to view the valuation roll and lodge their objection if necessary.
In light of the community’s discontent, the floor is now open to Newcastle residents: what are your thoughts on the above?
Share your views in the comment section below.
Comments 7
1) DDP use neighborhood resident to compile the value, but we are not allowed .
2) He stated that the high crime rate is not an issue, stating that people will sell the property but nobody will buy in that area?.
3) If Mittal would shut down, it means that for the next 5 years we will be paying inflated rates and taxes, instead of deflated rates.
4) As a pensioner with only my wife working and my son and his family depending on us, why am i not allowed to appeal.
Every year rates are encreased in excess of the inflation rates so every 5 years we have an additional encrease in encess of 20%.
So why is the infrastructures crumbling and no preventative maintenance done.
We are being ripped off big time
They want more money from residents to foot their high incomes and lavish lifestyles while service delivery is virtually non existent. There is no growth in the town. There’s no move to actually bring investment in this town. It’s a town not a city. Making it a city was just to boost their salaries now we the community must foot that bill as well. Municipality must stop corruption and start doing some work. Seems like there’s more people sitting in the glass house twiddling their thumbs and Noone in the field to actually do the work. Get rid of overpaid underworld and under qualified workers and bring in one’s that know and understand the job.
Unacceptable increase in a dying town, and with the current inflation rate, soring food prices and no increases on salary, further more electricity is double with the current 6 hours of no power. We are being ripped off, period. Come and see my home surrounding, unattended to in at least 8 or more years
How do we get a copy of the evaluation to determine if the research was comprehensive enough to justify the increases?
Simple things like the surrounding areas have unkempt front yards, over grown grass on pavements onto the road and storm drains stuffed with garbage. Roads with deep countless potholes. Streets that have tree roots running under. Litter shrewn all over after tractor cuts the grass and not raked. Illegal foreigners who live in dilapidated houses that are not taken care of like the one on Scott Street opposite Global Security. Fields of high grass in the whole of Newcastle. RATES is charged for the upkeep of your town, how can it be increased when the service has decreased???
What is the use of complaining while we are sitting at our homes and drinking nice coffee? If we don’t stand up and act ,who will do it for us? If you can’t beat them join them.Join a party of your choice and make a change!