Moving suburbs will save you $160 in rates

The new council rates reveal huge differences in what people pay for the same services, even in suburbs 8km apart.

Inner-south residents could save up to $160 just by moving 8km, new rates rises show.

HOMEOWNERS in the inner-south could save up to $160 a year on rates if they were prepared to move just 8km.

Owner-occupiers in Tarragindi will cop the highest rates rise in the southside under Council’s 2019-20 Budget, handed down later today.

Residents there will be slugged an extra $80.91 a year (to $1936), up a whopping 4.4 per cent, one of the biggest percentage increases in the city.

That compares with a drop of 5.1 per cent in Kangaroo Point, the biggest drop in Brisbane.

Kangaroo Point residents will save enough for a slap-up meal at a local restaurant — $86.38, taking their rates down to $1606.96.

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Brisbane’s overall average rates will increase at more than twice the official inflation rate (1.3 per cent) despite council receiving a deluge in extra rates from the recent building boom which has seen unprecedented amounts of cash stuffed into their coffers.

Just two southside suburbs will have rates rises under the inflation rate, one of the worst results for owner-occupiers in years.

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Labor Opposition leader Rob Harding denounced the rates rise as emblematic of the LNP’s incompetence and said it stemmed from several massively expensive infrastructure mistakes.

But new Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner defended the increase, saying it would pay for new infrastructure.

“They (residents) are right to be angry about the culture of waste that Adrian Schrinner and the LNP have brought to Council,” Mr Harding said.

“We’ve seen $30 million wasted on a bungled IT project, hundreds of thousands wasted on LNP self-promotion, $3 million of ratepayers’ money on a private company’s zipline proposal.

“It all adds up under Adrian Schrinner and the LNP.”

Councillor Jonathan Sri (The Gabba) said rate rises tended to hit lower-income home-owners the hardest.

“I’ve also heard concerns that some rate rises get passed on to tenants via higher rents,’’ he said.

“Both local and state governments continue to upzone land for higher-density development, which drives up land values and penalises long-term residents who don’t want to sell to highrise developers.

“I think we need a more nuanced rates system that discourages investors from leaving land or buildings sitting empty, and rewards people who rent out their properties cheaply to people on lower incomes, rather than jacking up the rent.’’

But Cr Schrinner said “this Budget outlines my ambition for building an even better Brisbane over the next decade and protecting our incredible lifestyle and green space”.

RATE RISES IN THE INNER SOUTH

Dutton Park, $2152.49, up $56.82 (2.75)

Highgate Hill, $2040, up $45.58 (2.35)

Kangaroo Point, $1606.96, down $86.38 (-5.1%)

Moorooka, $1564.35, up $30.38 (2%)

Salisbury, $1496.06, up $25.43 (1.7%)

South Brisbane, $1349.11, up $26.56 (2%)

Stones Corner, $1403.79, up $32.28 (2.4%)

Tarragindi, $1936.36, up $80.91 (4.4%)

Tennyson, $1876, up $23.54 (1.3%)

West End, $1805.75, up 52.11 (3%)

Woolloongabba, $1590.50, up $47.39 (3.1%)

Yeerongpilly, $1621.07, up $16.79 (1%)

Yeronga, $2000.30, up $43.60 (2.2%)