Auckland rates dispute: Council to revalue all properties in Ōnetangi hotspot, community divided

“A lot of them own other properties – and they are asking for a discount?”

Last month, the Herald revealed the private holiday home of Luxon and his wife Amanda Luxon was granted a devaluation and subsequent rates reduction after the couple lodged an objection with the council.

Their luxury second home was valued at $10.5m by Auckland Council in June, meaning it would have had a rates bill of just over $25,000 a year.

After their objection to the valuation was lodged, Auckland Council agreed to drop the value of the home by 33% to $7m, records show.

This will save the Luxons $8100 on their annual rates bill.

The Prime Minister declined to comment.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and wife Amanda lodged an objection with council and were granted a devaluation and rates reduction on their holiday home in Ōnetangi, Waiheke Island.

All Auckland property owners had seven weeks from June in which to object if they believed their home’s valuation was incorrect.

There are 630,000 Auckland properties and 10,500 owners across the city challenged their new valuations.

Forty-seven owners in Ōnetangi – including the Luxons – were among them and quickly had their homes revalued and rates reduced.

Across Auckland, more than 86% of objectors are still waiting for a decision and the council expects to be processing them into 2026.

The Herald found mixed views about the new valuations and the objections to them on a visit to Ōnetangi.

One neighbour claimed “the council screwed up the valuations” and that the Luxons were right to lodge an objection, given they believed it was a mistake and the increase wasn’t justified.

“The suggestion the Luxons and the rest of us tailgated getting it done quickly is absolute nonsense.

“Everyone was appalled, there was no concerted action, we filed our own objections individually. We just exercised our rights as ratepayers and the council have come back with a more realistic approach.”

An Ōnetangi resident who didn’t object to her valuation ciaimed Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was “out of touch” and showed poor judgement” objecting to the rates hike. Composite photo / Anna Heath, NZME

Another resident, who didn’t object to her valuation, claimed the Luxons were “out of touch” and showed poor judgment by objecting to the valuation and rates hike.

“It’s a bit rich for a man who promised to get the country’s spending under control,” she said.

“He is the Prime Minister and owns several properties, his mansion here is worth loads. Pay your rates and don’t object and moan about it.”

She believes he hasn’t spared a thought for people who are struggling. “There are a lot of poor people here.”

A lawnmowing contractor said his empty section on a cliff next to the public toilets was overvalued at $7.4m and his rates went up unreasonably. Photo / Anna Heath

A lawnmowing contractor who owns an empty clifftop section nearby told the Herald he did object to his valuation in June, and supports those who did the same.

He told the Herald his property was valued at $7.4m, and his rates went up 108%. It has since been devalued to $3.3m, he said.

“The council stuffed up, they clearly never looked at my land … I am not wealthy – I bought the section in 1985 in my 20s on a whim. I paid $12,000.

A long-time resident of The Strand in Ōnetangi believed the area was being punished for being a luxurious location. Photo / Anna Heath

“It’s crazy – there’s no house on it and it’s next to the toilets, and mainly cliff. When the council said what it was worth, I thought it was way out of kilter so I took my own action with the council.”

Another long-time resident who lives nearby told the Herald he believed The Strand was being punished for being a luxurious location.

“People might think the rich are robbing from the poor but it’s only the poor people who live on The Strand that are the ones being punished,” the man said.

Rates refunds on the way

The council has now taken the unusual step of advising the owners of the roughly 70 remaining Ōnetangi beachfront properties, where no objections were lodged, that it will be adjusting their valuations and rates for the entire 2025-2026 rating year. Some of the home owners will receive refunds.

Rhonwen Heath, the council’s head of rates, valuations and data, told the Herald property owners in Ōnetangi wouldn’t need to take any action.

“The council will complete the reviews, issue updated valuations and make the necessary changes to their rates accordingly,” she said.

The council has now advised owners of 70 of the remaining beachfront Ōnetangi properties it will be adjusting their rates for the entire 2025-2026 rating year. Photo / Anna Heath

The change will not apply to every home in Ōnetangi – only the 120 or so multimillion-dollar beachfront properties.

Their owners include lawyers, a judge, surgeons, investment bankers, a bloodstock trader and a wine baron. Nineteen of the properties were worth $10m in June, according to Auckland Council, and the most expensive was $12.5m.

The owner of that property, who didn’t want to be identified but was happy for his house to be photographed, claimed The Strand was overvalued in June and “targeted by council” – because the owners were perceived as being wealthy.

He told the Herald his double section with sea views had the original 100-year-old family home on it, as well as a standard three-bedroom second home with concrete floors, and he was “not a multi-millionaire”.

The owner of the most expensive property on The Strand in Ōnetangi claimed the neighbourhood had been “targeted” by the council because of perceptions the owners are wealthy. Photo / Anna Heath

The owner said he built his own furniture with recycled macrocarpa and scaffolding parts.

“This original house … has been here since 1926 and was bequeathed to us.”

He believed a recent property sale had hiked up prices.

“It was outrageous – we were paying about $18,000 a year in rates and it went up to $31,000, so it became a bit of a budgetary problem. We contacted a valuer, sight unseen, and the next thing the values are being altered and new rates followed.”

The council said a small number of sales in Ōnetangi “not representative of the market” could have inflated values. Photo / Michael Craig

Auckland Council’s Heath told the Herald earlier that a small number of sales in Ōnetangi “not representative of the market” had inflated values in the area.

There had only been five sales in Ōnetangi for valuers to base the 2024 valuations on, and one in particular had skewed the overall results, she said.

“To address the issue, the revaluers looked more broadly at values in Waiheke and earlier trends for Ōnetangi. This has resulted in a correction and reduced values for 47 properties,” Heath said. (The extended correction has increased this number to about 120.)

Ōnetangi: An objection ‘hotspot’

While there is no suggestion that the Luxons and their fellow objectors broke any rules in relation to their Waiheke homes, the residents of Ōnetangi have received a faster service from the council than most other areas in Auckland.

Heath told the Herald that’s because when objections came in, her team looked across Auckland for “hotspots”.

They noticed “a particularly high concentration of rating valuation queries from Onetangi”, she said.

The owners of 47 properties – including the Prime Minister’s – had lodged valuation objections.

The owners of 47 properties in Ōnetangi, including Amanda and Christopher Luxon, objected to their valuations and rates hikes, and Auckland Council reduced them.

Under the council process, each property had to lodge its own separate objection and each received a personal visit from a council-appointed valuer. All 47 objections were successful, quickly receiving lower valuations.

The sizes of the decreases ranged from $900,000 to $5.8m and meant a reduced rates take for the council of $281,000 across the 47 properties.

When originally asked why the Ōnetangi properties were processed so early, Heath said it was “based on resources and the availability of a valuer with specific expertise in that location”.

Ōnetangi locals told the Herald that valuer was Hamish McCulloch from Island Valuation – an fellow local. His website says he has been a long-time valuer, and has advised central Government on public housing policy. He declined to be interviewed.

However Heath said she had been referring to Opteon Property Valuations and McCulloch was not engaged by the council – but by some of the Ōnetangi property owners.

Carolyne Meng-Yee is an Auckland-based investigative journalist who won Best Documentary at the Voyager Media Awards. Recently, she was runner-up for Best Editorial Campaign and part of a team that won Best Coverage of a Major News Event: Philip Polkinghorne Murder Trial. She worked for the Herald on Sunday, then rejoined the Herald in 2016 after working as an award-winning current affairs producer at TVNZ’s 60 Minutes, 20/20 and Sunday.