![\"Vacant](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/17254fdbab5062d2bec1a0a2b53a1d15afae238d.jpg\")
Camera IconVacant landowners face a hike in their rates bills. Credit: Sophie Gannon<\/p>\nThe City of Vincent has supported a 40.9 per cent increase in rates for vacant residential land owners to ensure the community doesn\u2019t \u201cpick up the tab\u201d for the \u201ccost impacts\u201d vacant properties bring.<\/p>\n
The increase forms part of the city\u2019s 2026-27 budget, which was unanimously adopted on Tuesday night and includes a general rate increase of 5.4 per cent and a new differential rate for short-term rental accommodation.<\/p>\n
The vacant land increase sparked some significant feedback, with Mt Hawthorn resident Lesley Florey presenting a petition with 80 signatures opposing the proposal.<\/p>\n
Ms Florey described the increase as \u201cextraordinary, excessive, unreasonable, fundamentally unfair to affected ratepayers\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rise of this magnitude cannot reasonably be characterised as a standard fee adjustment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt represents a punitive financial measure imposed upon a specific class of residents and property owners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Florey said the council was attempting to use rates to pressure owners into developing or selling their land.<\/p>\n
\u201cRates are intended to cover reasonable costs of local government services and administration, not to operate as a coercive mechanism to force landowners into private financial decisions regarding development,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is inappropriate and inequitable for the city to impose what amounts to a financial penalty upon residents simply because the council disapproves of how privately owned land is currently being utilised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Florey said the increase was \u201cgrossly disproportionate when compared with the proposed 5.4 per cent increase for general resident properties\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said the council should reject the proposed rates in its current form, hold \u201cgenuine consultation\u201d with affected landowners such as herself, and be transparent with its financial justification.<\/p>\n
But another resident, Robert Bo, said the proposed increase was too small.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goals that the city is setting won\u2019t be achieved by the amount of different that they\u2019re proposing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Bo said the increase would be \u201csome sort of incentive\u201d but believed the city\u2019s justification \u201csmacks of tokenism\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would need to have something in the vicinity of about 500 per cent different if you were to disrupt the economics of the current status quo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He believed vacant land ownership was a bid to sit and hold \u201cwealth storage\u201d for the next family generation and if the proposal went ahead, it would just lock in the status quo and not change anything.<\/p>\n
Cr Nicole Woolf said differential rates were one of the few ways local governments could encourage development.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a local level, we don\u2019t have many tools available to us … but differential rates are one of those tools,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Cr Woolf said vacant properties put extra costs on the broader community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that vacant properties have real cost impacts and community impacts through graffiti, vandalism, dumping of waste, and antisocial behaviour,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Camera IconVacant landowners face a hike in their rates bills. Credit: Sophie Gannon<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s only fair that the owners of long-term vacant properties contribute more towards those costs rather than having ratepayers pick up the tab.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cr Woolf said the budget had been developed during a difficult economic period for local governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a cost-of-living crisis and councils across WA have experienced rapid increases in costs, particularly due to skyrocketing construction costs and supply chain pressures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said costs were rising faster than revenue across the nation, which had put councils under financial strain to maintain their services.<\/p>\n
Cr Woolf described the city\u2019s budget as \u201cresponsible and balanced\u201d and said Vincent remained one of the lowest rating councils while \u201cdelivering really strong value for money\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mayor Alison Xamon said it was a challenging budget to present but hoped it was \u201cin line with community expectations\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are responding to a number of concerns that are continually raised with us from frustrated residents about wanting to ensure that our communities are being protected and that the community is also being developed appropriately,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Deputy mayor Alex Castle said residents had consistently raised concerns about both vacant land and short-stay accommodation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s both a sensible and responsible way to move forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community tells us that they are sick of seeing vacant properties sitting vacant for years on end.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s new budget will come into effect July 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Vincent has supported a 40.9 per cent increase in rates for vacant residential land owners…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,505,135,44,46,84,45],"class_list":["post-745106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-central","tag-local-government","tag-news","tag-perth","tag-politics","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}