Audrey Moore said she nearly fell off her chair when she opened a letter from Quotable Value NZ (QV) late last year informing her the capital value of the section beside her and husband Murray’s District Rd home, which they bought in 1989 to build a driveway on, had increased from $23,000 to $170,000.
This year they paid $56.13 in rates to the Dunedin City Council for the property; next year their rates bill will be an estimated $567.12.
Mrs Moore said at the time they bought it, the land was in the defined area of the Church Hill Rd landslip.
The ground was a ‘‘horrible sort of dark clay which slides’’ and they were told it was too unstable to build a house on, she said.
The property was subsequently identified as farmland in rates bills over the years and Mrs Moore said she had been surprised to find out in 2021 that it was actually zoned residential, and had been since at least 2015.
She questioned the zoning at the time due to the landslip and was provided more recent documents showing the property was not in the landslip’s area.
The land’s capital value, meanwhile, remained relatively stable, other than increasing by ‘‘a couple thousand’’ at each three-yearly revaluation.
Then came the 2025 revaluation.
Certain there had been an error, Mrs Moore starting making calls, but was unsatisfied with the response, feeling staff focused on the fact that she owned an attractive, landscaped section rather than addressing whether it was actually suitable for development.
The Moores lodged an objection with QV, which reviewed the revaluation and decided in May that the $170,000 value stood.
Rates are charged according to zone — 89 District Rd is zoned General Residential 1 — and land use category.
Land use categories include farmland and residential as well as others.
A change in the use of land from ‘‘farmland’’ to ‘‘residential’’ can result in a significant increase in a property’s capital value.
The Moores have used the property in the same way for 35 years and most of that time the land has been categorised as farmland.
It is not clear why it was only assessed last year as being residential.
Asked about the change, a Dunedin City Council spokesperson could not be more specific other than to say improvements in valuation data, mapping and review processes occasionally identified properties that warranted a value reassessment.
‘‘QV’s latest assessment is that the property at 89 District Rd is residential in nature, at 809sqm, with no impediments to residential development.’’
The property was valued using land-use data and — with no planning, title, or hazard restrictions identified — was assessed based on its residential zoning and development potential, the spokesperson said.
Mrs Moore questioned the inconsistency of property valuations on the street, for example the land on which their house sat, next door, was valued at $90,000; and noted no-one physically inspected the steeply sloping site at number 89 before it was reassessed.
The council said valuations considered zoning, site characteristics, available information and market evidence, without requiring geotechnical reports unless significant impacts were demonstrated.
‘‘No information was identified that would warrant a departure from the assessed value of $170,000,’’ the spokesperson said.
Mrs Moore said she remained concerned about the stability of the property.
‘‘We might be in a safe zone, but I still wouldn’t risk building a house on that section.
‘‘If we decided we’d sell it ... I wouldn’t feel OK about someone building a house. I would always feel if anything happened, it was my fault, you know.’’
The Church Hill Rd landslip is actively monitored.
