New rating valuations on the way for Porirua
Porirua District property owners will soon receive new three-yearly rating valuations in the post.
Updated values have been prepared for all 21,481 properties in the district by independent valuers Quotable Value (QV) on behalf of Porirua City Council. They reflect the likely price a property would have sold for on 1 September 2025, not including chattels.
Residential
Since the district’s last revaluation in 2022, the value of residential housing has decreased by an average of 3.7%. The average house value is now at $830,000, while the corresponding average land value has decreased by 14.6% to a new average of $420,000.
QV Chief Commercial Officer and Registered Valuer David Nagel 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 Region, including Porirua, experienced some of the strongest value growth in the country during the boom and has since undergone one of the sharpest corrections,” Mr Nagel 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 Porirua 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 3.5%, with the industrial sector increasing by 11.7% on average since 2022.
“Property values in the commercial sector have not been immune to a general softening of the property market,” Mr Nagel 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.”
“Bucking the trend for reductions is the industrial sector where a shortage of good quality property has followed a nationwide trend for value growth across most industrial properties in the city,” Mr Nagel said. “This has been driven by demand from both owner-occupiers as well as investors eager to avoid exposure to a tightening office and retail property sector.”
Lifestyle/Rural
Since 2022, the average capital value of a lifestyle property has decreased by 9.5% to $940,000, while the corresponding land value for a lifestyle property decreased by 9.7% to $560,000.
“Lifestyle property makes up a relatively small number of assessments in Porirua at 546 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 slightly higher rate.”
Mr Nagel said there were very few true rural properties in the city with fewer than 20 properties in total. Of these, both pastoral and forestry properties had experienced a decline of 9.2% and 11% respectively for capital values.
What are rating valuations?
Rating valuations are usually carried out on all New Zealand properties every three years to help local councils assess rates for the following three-year period. They are not intended to be used for any other purpose, including raising finance with banks or as insurance valuations.
They reflect the likely selling price of a property at the effective revaluation date, which was 1 September 2025, and do not include chattels. Any changes in the market since that time will not be included in the new rating valuations, which often means that a sale price achieved today will be different to the new rating valuation.
Rating valuations are calculated using a highly complex and detailed process that utilises all relevant property sales from the area. A large number of properties will also be physically assessed, particularly those that have been issued building consents in the last three years.
The updated rating valuations are then independently audited by the Office of the Valuer General to ensure they meet rigorous quality standards, before the new rating valuations are confirmed and posted to property owners.
New rating values will be posted to property owners from 29 April 2026. If owners do not agree with their rating valuation, they have a right to object through the objection process by 5 June 2026.
If you’d like more information on rating valuations head to www.qv.co.nz/about/about-rating-valuations/# or visit www.qv.co.nz/services/rating-valuations/object-rating/ to find everything you need to know about lodging a formal objection.
