Your rates

All property owners in Canterbury pay rates.  There are different types of rates that make up the total you pay. You can also find out how activity is funded through your rates using our Rates Tool.

How your rates are calculated

Environment Canterbury collects different types of rates.

  • General rates are charged based on the capital value of your property and location.
  • Targeted rates are charged where there is a specific benefit to the property owner.

Occasionally there is a ‘targeted’ rate that is charged to everyone as the funds are targeted to a specific piece of work eg the Civil Defence Emergency Management.

  • Uniform Annual General Charge (UAGC)

There is also a Uniform Annual General Charge (UAGC) that can be charged: this is essentially a ‘general rate’ but it is the same for every property ie not based on value or location of the property. 

Rates are not the only source of income for Environment Canterbury.  We also receive grants from other agencies, for example the significant income from NZTA for the public transport system, and user-payers when a specific fee for a service is charged eg bus fares. 

Setting rates

When setting rates and fees/charges, we need to balance what is affordable for the community and who should pay for the activity, with the outcome that the activity will give the community and how quickly it needs to be achieved. It isn’t possible to do all the things that need doing immediately, so this balance is crucial to keeping rates affordable and activity on track.  

As rates vary from property to property, we talk about ‘total rates revenue’ when talking about rates increases or decreases.  Eg a 4% rates increase won’t necessarily mean your individual rates will increase by 4%, this percentage applies to the total income from rates received.  We have a policy limit on rates increases of 5.3%.   

Rates Tool

You can use the Rates Tool to see how the different portfolios and programmes of work are funded in general terms in project view and also geographically in map view.  

rate stool

Rate comparisons for selected properties

The table below shows examples of 2018/19 rates for selected properties across Canterbury.  Not all districts are represented in this table of examples, it is provided here to give indicative numbers.  

A full table is available in the Long-Term Plan document.

Your actual rates may differ from those shown as rates are based on where you live, the capital value of your property, and the mix of general and targeted rates for your property location.  

Rates comparison for selected Properties           GST included
District Last valuation Capital value of Property 2018/19 Capital value of Property 2017/18 2018/19 rate 2017/18 rate Movement in $ terms 
Christchurch - Urban City Aug-16  $570,000   $570,000 395.76  400.84 

-5.08 
Kaikōura - Urban City Sept-15  $315,000  $315,000  196.83  192.90 

3.92 
 Hurunui - Rural Sept-16  $1,860,000  $1,860,000  840.14  895.18 

-55.04 
Waimakariri - Rural Aug-16 

$5,100,000  

$5,100,000  

2,241.91 

  2,107.00 

134.91
Ashburton - Rural July-15  $4,080,000  $4,080,000   3,478.56   3,375.74 

102.82
Selwyn - Urban Lincoln July-15  $475,000  $475,000  338.00  271.07 

66.93 
Timaru - Urban City Sept-17 $320,000    $260,000  190.52 $183.27 

 7.24
Mackenzie - Rural July-17   $5,050,000 $4,620,000  2,569.53 2,443.57 

125.97

*Note: rates have been calculated using valuation information available at the time this report was prepared.