Council rates: NSW’s cheapest and most expensive residential rates

One road in Sydney has an aeye-watering divide, with neighbours on each side of the street paying an vastly different amounts in rates. How does your local council compare?

It’s the expensive stretch of bitumen where one road dictates whether you’ll pay almost an extra $1000 in council rates a year.

They say the grass is always greener on the other side – but for residents living on each side of Pittwater Road, north of Gladesville, it could be much cheaper too.

The road signifies the boundary between Ryde and Hunter’s Hill councils.

Residents in Hunter’s Hill pay an average of $1903.23 – the most in NSW across 2019-2020, according to the latest data from the NSW Government’s Your Council statistics.

But if a Hunter’s Hill local were to move just a few metres across the Pittwater Road and into the City of Ryde local government area, they’d pay just $1039.24 – an eye-watering difference of $863.99 a year.

Phillip Brown has lived in the City of Ryde Council area since 1977.

He currently pays about $440 in residential rates a quarter, putting him above the average for his council area.

“There’s a couple of extras I’d like – more street cleaning on a regular basis, improvements to footpaths, road surfacing – the basics have been let go,” he said.

He said residents of Hunter’s Hill living near the border of Ryde would find the price difference “tough”.

“There’s two parts of Hunter’s Hill – you’ve got the peninsula, but you’ve also got the suburban area which is equivalent to Ryde. If they’re paying higher rates than they’re most likely finding it tough,” he said.

Ryde resident Philip Brown has lived in his Simla Rd house since 1977 and has been watching the rates from Ryde City Council rise over the years. Picture: Toby Zerna

Meanwhile Hunter’s Hill resident David Morgan said he could understand why rates in his local area were high – pointing to the authority’s tiny physical area of just 5.7 square kilometres, making it the smallest in the state.

“Nobody is ever happy with their council, but I have to say under the new mayor (Zac Miles) we’re getting a heck of a lot of better service – does that warrant 1000 bucks difference? I don’t know,” he said.

“But Zac Miles has made a heck of a difference.”

A spokeswoman for Hunter’s Hill Council said the authority doesn’t have a high number of properties, unlike neighbouring council areas with high levels of residential flats, to divide it’s rate base.

In addition, about 41 per cent of the well-heeled local government area has non-rateable parcels of land, including churches, schools, public land and the Gladesville Hospital.

If Sydney rates seem too high, the bush may be more inviting – with Brewarrina in the state’s far west the cheapest with a lowly $154.66 a year.

Local Government Minister Wendy Tuckerman said it was up to residents to engage with their local councillors if they were unhappy with the service they were getting for their rates.

“Residents elect councillors to represent and serve their communities and I encourage residents to engage with their elected officials if they believe they aren’t getting value for money.”