About Us
The UOAQ is an industry Association to advance the interests of Unit Owners within the community. It represents its members to Government, and other stakeholder bodies, CTIQ being the association of Body Corporate Managers, and ARAMA being the association of caretakers. The UOAQ is currently actively lobbying for a review of Management Rights, differential rating by councils, and increased water charges. These representations are undertaken by an unpaid volunteer management committee
Membership
We need a strong, vibrant voice to represent unit owners. Become a member of UOAQ to make the most of our organisation
View Tax
This is the simple way of describing the GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL’s (GCCC) rating of units above the 4th level. The higher the floor, the greater the council rates that owners are charged. The GCCC describe it as “DIFFERENTIAL RATING”. Owners see it as a rate for the view.
Many Unit Owner ratepayers do not know what Differential Rating is or how it impacted on owners. This statement will try to explain.
The GCCC provides the following description:
“Differential General Rates”
A differential system of rates provides equity through recognising capacity to pay, level of services required, use of the property and the final impact on ratepayers.”
The categories listed in the GCCC Revenue Statement and Resolution of Rates and Charges 2011-12, impose increased rates on apartments the higher the apartment is in a building.
The council assumes that the higher an owner lives in a building, the greater their capacity to pay, or the greater their wealth. The council has determined that capacity to pay and wealth of the owner should determine the rates that an owner pays, and that all people who live in high rise apartments are wealthy, with a greater capacity to pay. Nothing is further from the truth.
There are numerous reasons why people move to high density life style, not the least being the encouragement of State Government policies. There was a community perception that as strata schemes shared lifestyle and infrastructure, it led to shared costs and reduced living expenses. Councils by introducing Differential Rating, saw unit owners as easy targets, providing the Council with generous financial rewards to the detriment of economies of scale and discouragement of the State Government’s SEQ regional plan.
Should the State Government want to maintain the integrity of its regional plan and avoid developing ever increasing infrastructure, it must support the abolition of Differential Rating, and restore the confidence that economies of scale will be fully secured to unit owners.
The impact of Differential Rating is outlined in the attached statement but can be best demonstrated by comparing the rates of a 2 bedroom apartment on selected higher floors.
The 2 bedroom apartments will be equal in size, and for the sake of this demonstration will each have a UCV of $150,000. ( UCV valuations are apportioned on the basis of “Interest Lot Entitlement” that normally increases with height increases, increasing rate exposure even further)
By 2009-10 the view tax had reached the following relatively conservative levels
| Rate | Additional rate | |||||
| 4th level apartment | $150,000 | @ | .4018 | $683.00 min | ||
| 5th level apartment | $150,000 | @ | .5013 | $751.95 | $68.95 | |
| 11th level apartment | $150,000 | @ | .5467 | $820.05 | $137.05 | |
| 21st level apartment | $150,000 | @ | .5920 | $888.00 | $205.05 | |
| 41st level apartment | $150,000 | @ | .6380 | $957.00 | $274.00 |
Had circumstances remained the same in 2011-12, with the council’s increased multiplier and previous UCV’s the following rates would have been produced:
| Rate | Additional rate | ||||
| 4th level apartment | $150,000 | @ | .522 | $783.00 | $27.00 |
| 5th level apartment | $150,000 | @ | .7843 | $1176.45 | $68.95 |
| 11th level apartment | $150,000 | @ | .8519 | $1277.85 | $541.85 |
| 21st level apartment | $150,000 | @ | .9204 | $1380.60 | $644.60 |
| 41st level apartment | $150,000 | @ | .988 | $1482.00 | $746.00 |
Due to massive reductions in state government UCV valuations, apparently caused by a spike in the market that saw failed developers sell their stocks of high rise development sites at fire sale prices, UCV’s were reduced by approximately1/3rd in the 2011-12 year.
When the economy stabilises and property values are reinstated to previous levels, the view tax will bite even deeper, and council differential rates will increase well beyond previous levels.
Unit owners can not be lulled into a false sense that rates have gone down, believing council has become more benevolent.
Council has clearly signalled its intention to continually increase differential rates, for in 2011-12 it increased still further the differential rate multiplier shaded in yellow, as demonstrated in the tables above.
The UOAQ believes that in this time of hardship, inequities of this kind should be forcefully opposed, and calls on all unit owners who live above the 4th level to support the abolition of this unfair rating regime. Contact your local councillor and urge them to support this cause or lose your vote at the forthcoming council elections.
Now is the most appropriate time for the GCCC to remedy this issue, for the reduction of UCV’s this year has delivered a considerable easing in Differential Rating revenue, and the immediate removal of Differential Rates will have minimal impact on future apportionment of rates in council budgets.
The Specifics of the Differential Rates can be downloaded in a PDF here
GOLD COAST UNIT OWNERS MUST ACT DURING THE ELECTION WHILE COUNCILLORS PERSUE THEIR VOTES TO DEMAND THAT THE RISK OF INCREASING UNFAIR DIFFERENTIAL RATES IS REMOVE
