‘Hikes are not normal’
FNB STATS SHOW A 20% DECLINE IN REAL VALUE OF PROPERTIES Mayor insists valuations are likely to increase because of market changes.
While Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba has defended the controversial property valuations, a property expert says the average increase in the 2018 General Valuation Roll is “abnormal”.
But frustrated ratepayers, some of whom were shocked to discover an up to 80% increase in the purported value of their properties, have to prove it has been miscalculated or face paying up to double their normal rates.
Michelle Dickens, managing director at TPN Credit Bureau, a property leasing company, said the sudden spike did not correspond with market trends. “I don’t think it’s normal. If you look at the FNB’s statistics nationally, you’re looking at a 20% decline in real value. We have not seen many price increases, so to have a 30% increase is not normal.”
Dickens advised homeowners to use the website windeed.com to have their property valued on a per-property basis, or contact TPN, which uses a per-suburb based calculation.
Thousands of properties will be subject to new rates from July 1. Market values were determined as at July 1, 2017. The average increase across the 879 000 properties was 30% over the last five years.
Mashaba denied that the new valuations were done to create more revenue for the city, which the ANC claims is in a dire financial state. He listed three typical reasons for the hikes – market
According to the city’s General Valuation Roll, the average increase for residential properties across the 879 000 properties is 30% over the five-year period. The movements in residential values can be allocated as follows: 4.61% of properties decreased; 10.44% of properties increased between 0 and 20%;
40.71% of properties increased between 21 and 40%;
30.65% of properties increased changes, substantial improvements and the possibility that a property was undervalued in the previous valuation roll.
“Johannesburg ... is a major economic hub on the continent and offer the many who flock here with the potential for a better life. The knock-on effect is that, in a space of high demand and limited supply, prices are likely to in- between 41 and 60%;
7.99% of properties increased between 61 and 80%;
2.23% of properties increase between 81 and 100%; and
3.38% of properties increased by more than 100%.
Mashaba said: “It must be noted that the values in the existing valuation roll were determined with the property market as at 2 July 2012, a 5-year gap between the two valuations”. crease over a five-year period.”
“It’s madness,” said Dickens. “I am sitting with some properties bought in the same areas at the same time. One has gone down in value by R100 000 and in the same suburb another has gone up by R200 000 and that’s about a 50% decline in the one and a 60% incline in the other.”