Following the publication of the Draft 2023 Valuation List for Northern Ireland the Colliers Rating team has pulled together its key takeaways from the new values.
- There has been an overall change of -0.6% from 2020 to 2023 values (Total NAV has dropped from £1,693 million to £1,682 million).
- Total NAV for Retail is down 4% on 2020 values. Hotels are down 24%.
- Warehouses NAVs have increased by 12% and Offices by 10% on the 2020 values. Total Manufacturing NAV is up 11% between the valuation lists.
- In Belfast city centre, retail is down 8%, hotels are down 24%, industrial/warehousing is up 20% and offices are up 14% on 2020 values.
- Outside Belfast, licensed premises are down 22% % on the 2020 values, whilst Belfast city centre based licensed premises are down only 2% on 2020 values.
- Non Domestic Rates for renewables have increased significantly.
The Northern Ireland non-domestic property market consists of 75,000 properties yielding approximately £650 million a year. According to Colliers, 64.4% of properties saw no change or a decrease in their NAV but 35.6% properties saw an increase.
David Hughes, Associate Director at Colliers, based in Northern Ireland said, “Given the Antecedent Valuation Date (AVD) for the current 2020 Valuation list was pre-Covid-19 (1 April 2018) and the new AVD for the upcoming list was 1 October 2021, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, we are surprised that over a third of property revaluations have increased. In many cases we feel these are strongly incorrect and we urge ratepayers who are not happy to engage with the LPS pre-List publication as soon as possible.
“Belfast is a case in point. Whilst prime Belfast office rents have increased in recent years, the effects of COVID-19 are still being felt in the market and will continue to be felt approaching the material date for the 2023 Valuation List. We therefore believe these should be reflected in the rateable values accordingly."
In relation to the rates poundages, (multipliers -which will be multiplied with the rateable values as part of calculating actual rates bills), the district rate poundages must be announced by 15 February 2023. The regional rate poundage will follow after that. The rate is connected to the 23/24 budget, which is not yet finalised.
Additionally, in the absence of a functioning Assembly the Secretary of State brought in legislation allowing him to introduce an NI regional rate via Westminster. The parliamentary timetable is unknown at this stage so we cannot say for certain when the regional rate poundages will be announced.
