Hutt City rating valuations updated: home values down 11.5%, land values down 26.8%
Hutt City rating valuations updated: home values down 11.5%, land values down 26.8%
Property owners in the Hutt City district will soon receive a Notice of Rating Valuation in the post with an updated rating value for their property.
The new rating valuations have been prepared for 43,576 properties by Quotable Value (QV) on behalf of Hutt City Council. They show the total rateable value for the district is now $39.2 billion, with the land value of those properties now valued at $19.26 billion.
Rating valuations are usually carried out on all New Zealand properties every three years to help local councils set rates for the following three-year period. They reflect the likely selling price of a property (not including chattels) at the effective revaluation date, which was 1 August 2025.
Residential
On average, the value of residential housing in Hutt City has decreased 11.5% since the previous effective revaluation date of 1 September 2022. The average home value is now $775,000, while the corresponding average land value has decreased by 26.8% to $415,000.
QV Senior Consultant and Registered Valuer Jack Whiteman said rating valuations are like a snapshot of property values at a point in time. “The 2022 revaluation in September represented a market that had cooled off from a tremendous period of growth in 2021. Since 2022, Wellington property values have been on a downward trend and activity has been very subdued.”
“The initial uptick in the property market occurred throughout a time of high market activity and record low interest rates, resulting in double-digit growth in property values in the greater Wellington region and many parts of the country. In response, the Reserve Bank increased the OCR throughout 2022, and by the end of that year it was up to 4.25%,” he said.
“A series of OCR increases and corresponding hikes in mortgage rates, coupled with tighter lending restrictions, have resulted in a sharp downward trend in property values in many parts of the country.
“Wellington, including Hutt City, experienced some of the strongest value growth in the country during the boom and has since undergone one of the sharpest corrections,” Mr Whiteman said.
During 2025, the downward trend has continued across the Wellington region and much of the country, despite the OCR dropping to 3.0% at the time of the Hutt City revaluation.
Although this has resulted in decreased interest rates, other factors such as high numbers of job losses in the public sector, a lack of ongoing employment security, the high cost of living and declining net migration have all contributed to a very soft property market and subdued levels of activity.
“General market sentiment, although improving, is still riddled with uncertainty as buyers look to navigate other economic factors before locking themselves into a home loan.”
“Modern and higher quality homes have retained their value slightly better – though all suburbs saw the average capital value (CV) drop between 4.7% and 16.2% over the past three years”, he said.
Meanwhile, many of the same economic factors such as cost of living and public sector job cuts have also impacted the commercial sector.
Commercial/Industrial
Commercial property values have decreased by 6.8%, with the industrial sector also declining slightly more at 9.0% on average since 2022.
“Property values in the commercial sector have not been immune to a general softening of the property market,” Mr Whiteman said. “The cost of ownership has increased substantially in the last three years with council rates and insurance costs all contributing to reducing the net rent available to service debt.”
Industrial property values have compared relatively similarly to the commercial sector in Hutt City despite having a period of outperforming the other asset classes.
“Industrial property has seen a similar decline in value to commercial. Again, good quality industrial warehouses or ‘A grade’ stock have fared well in a tough market with the ability to hold onto good tenants for longer periods.”
“There has been an increase in vacancies across the sector, with a lot of businesses relocating within the CBD. This can be for various reasons such as looking to reduce their footprint to reduce expenditure on larger spaces, or in some cases complete business failure. Regardless of the reason, vacancies are an indicator of risk, and the added risk will tend to slow the market.”
Lifestyle/Rural
Since 2022, the average capital value of a lifestyle property has decreased by 12.0% to $1,185,000, while the corresponding land value for a lifestyle property decreased by 18.9% to $600,000.
“Lifestyle property makes up a relatively small number of assessments in the Hutt City district at 554 total properties. The overall trend for lifestyle properties has followed similarly to that of the residential property, with capital values and land values falling at a comparable rate.”
Mr Whiteman said there were very few true rural properties in the city with fewer than 10 properties in total. Of these, both pastoral and forestry properties had experienced growth of 7.4% and 17.8% respectively for capital values.
About Rating Valuations
The effective rating revaluation date of 1 August 2025 has now passed, and any changes in the market since then will not be included in the new rating valuations. In many cases, this means a sale price achieved in the market today may be different to the new rating valuation set as at 1 August 2025.
The updated rating valuations are independently audited by the Office of the Valuer General and need to meet rigorous quality standards before the new rating valuations are certified. They are not designed to be used as market valuations for raising finance with banks or as insurance valuations.
Nationwide, we’re seeing a mixed trend with revaluation results confirmed for 14 of the 23 councils scheduled for revaluations in 2025. The majority of councils have seen their total values decline from the previous valuations three years ago, with some reductions as high as 9%.
New rating values will be posted to property owners after 17 December 2025. If owners do not agree with their rating valuation, they have a right to object through the objection process by 5 February 2026.
