Join us at The Howick Club on Saturday 22 August to hear what a revenue-neutral switch to Land Value Rates would mean for your suburb and your rates bill. Then find your ward below and email your councillors asking them to support Land Value Rates for Auckland.
Public meeting
Better Rates for Auckland
Saturday 22 August, 2:00–5:00pm
The Howick Club, 107 Botany Road, Botany
Hear what a revenue-neutral switch to Land Value Rates would mean for your suburb and your rates bill, and how to have your say. Everyone welcome — bring a neighbour.
This finder works by suburb. A few suburbs sit across two wards — we’ll show councillors for both.
Why this matters
Land Value Rates would shift the rating base off buildings and onto land — without collecting a dollar more. Auckland Council’s own economists proposed the switch in 2020, finding 59% of ratepayers would pay less. Well-improved homes and apartments save; vacant and underused land, which today gets a discount for sitting idle, finally pays its share.
Underused land across Auckland
Brighter areas have more land value tied up in sites that are worth more as bare dirt than for what’s built on them — vacant lots, car parks and land-banked sites. Under capital-value rates, holding land like this is cheap. Under Land Value Rates, using it well is what’s rewarded.
Source: Auckland Council rating valuations — 515,332 properties across the metro, weighted by land value on sites with land worth ≥62% of capital value.
Realising the benefits of the City Rail Link
The $5.5B City Rail Link opens in the coming months. Within a 10-minute walk of the three new stations, 101 hectares of land sits underused and more than 3,300 rating units are car parks. Today, building apartments above a station puts your rates up, while holding a car park keeps them down. Land Value Rates flip that incentive — and put the publicly funded windfall in station-area land values to work.
Upzoning
Auckland is moving to allow more homes around rapid transit and town centres. Upzoning makes well-located land more valuable — Land Value Rates encourage that land to actually be developed into the homes Auckland needs.
Mayor
You may also want to contact the Mayor directly to support a transition to Land Value Rates.
