As more households buckle under the pressure of the rising cost-of-living crisis, the Nama Khoi coalition municipality has tabled a 19% reduction in residential property rates to ease the burden on homeowners.
The decision to reduce the residential property rate from 0,01617 to 0,0129675 effectively means that the owner of a home valued at R1 million will make a savings of approximately R267 per month. This will not only bring relief to households but will also help them keep up with their payments while freeing up money for other essentials, such as electricity.
In the past, property rates were evaluated every five years as required, however consideration was never given to the resultant tariff. Last year, the municipality became uneasy with the valuation process and felt that it was not an accurate reflection, as there were too many variances amongst similar sized properties.
This year, a zero-percentage increase was initially calculated for the budgeting process. However, even with a zero-based increase, residential property rates were exorbitant.
We subsequently sourced an expert opinion and took the decision to reduce the residential property rate. This is a first for Nama Khoi municipality.
Nama Khoi’s bold decision to effectively turn down R11 million worth of revenue in residential property rates increases, demonstrates our concern about residents’ ability to keep their head above water. It will also assist the municipality to keep up with our good revenue collection rate.
Our decision to start with the residential property rate was based on its broad-ranging impact in every Nama Khoi town. We will also be following a similar re-evaluation process of mining, business and industrial property rates and tariffs, to put forth proposals for next year’s budgeting process to further ensure that we are not punishing the consumer and hampering the local economy.