Katherine properties are being officially revalued.
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The process has already started.
Many people expect their property prices to be very different from the values placed on them three years ago thanks to PFAS contamination of the region.
The fall in property values because of PFAS is the basis for a class action involving many hundreds of Katherine residents against the Department of Defence.
The Tindal RAAF Base caused the contamination.
Rates, which are based on these valuations, is set to be an issue with a resident understood to be calling for a show of strength at next Tuesday evening's Katherine Town Council meeting's question and answer session.
Residents have faced a series of rate rises in recent years as the council tries to build its bank balance to pay for the replacement of the town's rubbish tip which some estimates place at costing $40 million - to close the current waste management facility and re-open a new one.
Council chief executive Rob Jennings insists Katherine's rates remain lower than anyone else outside Darwin.
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Katherine's official property valuations are recalculated every three years by the Valuer General which is part of the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics.
Katherine's properties are to be revalued this year as at July 1.
But the revaluation will be too late for this year's rates, which will be set again on the old pre-PFAS values.
Unimproved Capital Value (UCV) identifies the amount land alone would be expected to sell for without any encumbrances or improvements (i.e. dwellings, sheds, pools etc.), a departmental spokeswoman said today.
"UCVs are determined by considering similar sales in the market, observed trends, supply and demand, and the land's current use and zoning.
"The 2019 Katherine revaluation will include analysis of sales prices that occurred within the Katherine locality between 2016 and 2019."
Those sale prices are widely believed to have dropped between 10-50 per cent from late 2016 when the extent of PFAS contamination of Katherine was made public.
Of course, some properties neighbouring the base are considered "unsaleable", as a recent Senate hearing was told in Katherine.
The department is conducting sales inspections from this month until September.
"In late October 2019 Notices of Valuation will be sent to land owners in the Katherine municipality," the spokeswoman said.
"In late November 2019 when the objection period has closed, a copy of the Valuation Roll will be delivered to council. Council will then use the 2019 Valuation Roll to apportion rates for the 2020 financial year."
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