What each Queensland council charges per dollar of land

Why a high rate in the dollar does not mean expensive

A council works out the revenue it needs, then sets a rate in the dollar that will raise it from the rateable value in its area. Where land values are low, that rate has to be high. Where land values are high, it can be low and still raise more.

South Burnett Regional Council strikes 1.4832 cents and Noosa Council strikes 0.2001 cents. Read as a price comparison, that looks like a 7.4-fold difference in cost. It is not. It is a 7.4-fold difference in how much rateable value each council has to work with.

This is also why there is no state-wide ranking on this page at a single valuation. Apply $700,000 to every council and the order produced is close to a ranking of which councils have the cheapest land, with the regional shires at the top and Brisbane near the bottom. The arithmetic would be right and the conclusion would be wrong, because $700,000 of rateable value is an ordinary suburban block in one of those places and a substantial rural holding in the other. Councils are only compared below within South East Queensland, where that valuation is plausible for every council in the set.

The rate in the dollar, and where the minimum stops binding

Two numbers decide a Queensland rates bill. The rate in the dollar, and the minimum general rate that applies when the rate produces less than it. The third column is the crossover: below that rateable value you pay the minimum, above it you pay the rate.

6 of the 18 councils are still on their minimum at a $400,000 rateable value, which is why a modest block in those areas pays a flat figure no matter how modest it is. Noosa Council has the highest crossover at $769,615.

6 councils band the rate, so the rate in the dollar itself falls as the value rises. Sunshine Coast Council has 10 bands, the most in the state, and its cheapest band applies only above $5,603,000. The rate shown above is the one that applies at a $700,000 rateable value, so it matches the figures worked below rather than a band most properties never reach.

South East Queensland compared at the same valuation

These 11 councils all contain ordinary residential property at $700,000 of rateable value, so comparing them at that figure compares like with like. The median is $2,377, and the range runs from $1,494 in Brisbane City Council to $5,282 in Lockyer Valley Regional Council, a difference of $3,788.

Toowoomba is part of South East Queensland and is missing from this table. It publishes no catch-all residential category, so an unnamed Toowoomba address cannot be given a figure without guessing which category it falls in.

Every covered council at the three valuations

The same three hypothetical rateable values applied to all 18 councils. These are lookups, not a ranking, for the reason set out above.

The councils marked averaged apply the rate to a three-year average of the property's own valuations rather than this year's. For those 6 the figure above assumes the value given is already the averaged one, which is what appears on the rates notice. The free Valuer-General lookup will not reproduce it.

Related studies

• Most expensive council rates in Queensland, ranked on the minimum general rate rather than on a valuation.
• How council rates are calculated, the difference between the Queensland, New South Wales and Victorian bases.
• Average council rates in Sydney, the New South Wales basis across 32 councils.
• Every council we hold, with the rating schedule behind each figure.