Municipal rates are only part of escalating bills, homeowners say

The Cape Town Collective Ratepayers’ Association (CTCRA) has raised significant concerns regarding the City of Cape Town’s General Valuation 2025 (GV2025). 

They report that many homeowners have experienced valuation increases ranging from 25% to 140%.

In response, the City has proposed a 10.2% reduction in the property rates formula following the GV2025, but homeowners remain apprehensive about the implications of these changes.

The General Valuation Roll (GVR) is a document containing the municipal valuations of all the registered properties within the boundaries of the City of Cape Town (CoCT) and is used to calculate the rates that property owners are required to pay.

The City said it subjects the GVR to extensive data verification and statistical accuracy checks, as well as an extensive external assurance or audit review.

Last week, the City announced it will propose a 10,2% lowering of the rate-in-rand for residential properties following the GV2025. The City’s rate-in-rand refers to the formula used to calculate property rates, which it claims is the lowest in South Africa across all rate categories. 

The municipality’s indicative residential rate-in-rand is 0,006428 (down from 0,007159) pending draft budget finalisation.

CTCRA chair Bas Zuidberg stated that while the City claims the average increase for residential properties is 17% according to GV2025, they have received numerous contrary reports, indicating that this will lead to steep rate increases

“The 10.2% lower RiR will provide some relief for the rates portions of municipal bills. However, any property which increases by more than 11% in value will still see an increase in rates. With valuation increases of 25% to 140% rates will increase substantially more than the increases CTCRA members saw in the past year, and these were already significant,” Zuidberg said.

“Rates are only one portion of municipal bills associated with property values. In its 2025/2026 budget, the City linked fixed charges for water, sanitation and 'city-wide cleaning' to property values. These charges resulted in further increases to municipal bills (in addition to a significant increase in rates), and new property valuations will exacerbate these increases. 

“The CoCT has also not provided any updates on the rate-in-rand for property categories other than residential, leaving owners of vacant, commercial, industrial and agricultural properties in the dark,” Zuidberg said.

“The CTCRA is of the view that the CoCT has acted irresponsibly by announcing significant valuation increases without giving a complete picture of the effect these will have on municipal bills. 

“The CoCT knew how concerned ratepayers would be after last year’s increases, and should have updated the Municipal Rates Calculator simultaneously to show the effect of the changes,” Zuidberg said.

He said that the public is left with a “Black Friday sale” feeling in which the CoCT increases valuations first and then promises a small discount, without full transparency on how other charges will be calculated.

Previously, Mayor Geordin-Hill-Lewis said: “Cape Town’s vastly lower rate-in-rand shows that it generally costs less to own a property asset here than it does anywhere else. This asset can also be expected to grow in value over time, increasing the net worth of families and personal wealth of ratepayers across the income and property value spectrum.”

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