The average rates of every Victorian council have been revealed

Are you paying more than your neighbour? Search our interactive table to see the average amount charged by each council across Victoria.

Council rates are often a sore spot for homeowners across Victoria, as they constantly creep upwards with each passing year.

Leader has pulled together average rates from across the state so you can see if you’re paying more than your neighbouring LGA.

Data from Ratepayers Victoria for the latest council rates showed that the top five most expensive areas for ratepayers are Melbourne at $2446.47 per year, Nillumbik at $2,403.04, Hobsons Bay at $2360.01, Shepparton at $2268.57 and Maribyrnong at $2243.63.

According to the data, average annual rate cost in Victoria is $1783.09 per year.

The council areas with the cheapest rates were Stonnington at $1426.94, Monash at $1372.86, Glenelg at $1361 and Loddon at just $1244.14 per year.

Ratepayers Victoria vice president Dean Hurlston said council rates across the state had been consistently trending upward over the years.

“For the absolute majority of councils, they have gone up every year by the rate cap, which is set by the state government at 3.5 per cent for this year,” Mr Hurlston said.

He said there were a variety of reasons that could contribute to the differing amounts that ratepayers spend in Victoria, but overall there was little regulation in council spending.

“Some councils have more staff per population than others, they have more buildings or more parks, but there is no benchmarking to see if a council is spending too much on things.”

According to Mr Hurlston, many councils claimed their rate rises matched the rising consumer price index (CPI), which is a measure of the cost of goods and services for consumers and had increased by about 7.4 per cent in the last year.

He argued this wasn’t a valid justification for council rates going up.

“Given councils don’t buy a lot of raw materials, this is mostly untrue,” Mr Hurlston said.

“Most of the council’s contractors sign fixed price contracts well ahead of time and this insulates most councils from CPI increases, especially those of raw materials, as the supplier wears those increases not the council.

“Councils simply look at last year's budget and apply the rate cap, this means they always take the maximum they need, it is very rare that a council wouldn’t take the max rate cap because these processes are done by executives not councillors.”

It should be noted different councils are made up of different land types, with some being more residential and some being predominantly farming land, which impacts the average rates figure.