Rate reduction to cash strapped residents

[beachgurl]

I read an article in the local paper today where residents are complaining that their rates are now unaffordable due to rezoning of their properties. The council is considering offering rate reductions to those who need it.

What are your thoughts on this? Is it fair that equity rich owners get a discount on rates?

The area of interest is Merrylands/Wenty/guildford where property values have increased by over 50pc in 5 years.

I get that these people have been living in the area for years, but is it fair to give them discounts where their equity has just increased by over 200k? Is it just progress and if they want to stay in the area they need to sell and move to a low res zoning or is it a good thing to keep them in their homes refusing to sell to developers as they no longer have rates affordability issues?

 

[Propagate]

There were a lot of people that lived opposite our new build a few years back in lovely old acreage properties, (SE corridor Melbourne).

They were older people, had been there for decades, brought their families up there and loved their properties that they had spent a lifetime working on and living in.

Council rezoned them and hiked the rates so high there was no way they could afford to stay, in came the big developers and bought up all the properties.

The way I see it was these people had bought those properties long before there was any thought of new estates gobbling them up, they were essentially out in the sticks in those days and bought, what at the time, would have been cheaper acreage with a view to living out their whole lives there.

Personally, I think it's very unfair.

I realize land is getting rezoned all the time to make way for new estates and growth etc but hiking up the rates is basically a back-door way of compulsory purchase. Force people out of their homes by making it too expensive for them to stay.

A fairer system would be be to go ahead and rezone but that the rates don't change until the next time the property is sold.

 

[The Fence]

Council rezoned them and hiked the rates so high there was no way they could afford to stay, in came the big developers and bought up all the properties.

So if you were even just half smart, you'd be negotiating a fantastic price to sell out to the big developers and move to another place on the outskirts of a city and wait for it to be rezoned too, no?

If you want to be near a major city as it expands and want to keep your "hick" status then more the fool you. You'll get eaten up, alive.

get with the flow.

 

[ToGetProperty]

I believe after selling the rezoned home and bought the one on next street, it should still have at least 30% of fund left.

 

[jrc]

It's more a postponement than a writeoff

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/lga1993182/s585.html