Rates windfall for CBD

SOME property owners will receive windfall rates cuts and others significant increases as Townsville City Council introduces new differential rating categories.

The categories are used to calculate the amount of general rates property owners pay.

Winners include owners in the CBD where reductions are estimated at up to 50 per cent.

Losers include owners of non-strata titled unit complexes where a “loophole” will be closed where those owners paid far less than those with strata-titled complexes.

Mayor Jenny Hill said the changes were about making people pay their fair share.

“This was the first significant review of rating categories since the amalgamation of the former Thuringowa and Townsville councils in 2008 and included benchmarking against 19 other Queensland councils,” Cr Hill said.

“The review was not intended to increase revenue. Rather, it’s about ensuring consistency across the city. There is no change to the rating for (residential) owner-occupiers but there was an anomaly in how we rated multi-unit residential properties.”

Cr Hill said non-strata multi-unit dwellings would now be assessed for rates in the same way as strata-titled units.

She said the review also identified significant changes to retailing had occurred over the past decade, requiring a change in the way small and large retail stores were rated.

“The rates premium that used to be applied to properties in the central business district is gone with those properties now paying the same cents in the dollar as a similar property elsewhere in the city,” Cr Hill said. “While property values mean that CBD rates will still be higher than the suburbs, removing the premium will encourage inner-city businesses.”

Cr Hill said retail changes had produced other anomalies that needed addressing.

“Traditional shopping centres used to pay a much higher rate than the other newer forms of large retail like homemaker centres and stand-alone grocery stores,” Cr Hill said. “In future the rates for any land used for large retail will be based only upon the floor area of the stores.

“Levelling the field for the large retail stores has enabled the council to reduce rates for almost all other commercial land by an average of 6 per cent.”

Residential categories have been simplified with no significant changes to how they are applied.