Lies, damn lies and percentages as Wellington annual plan locked in
Thursday, 28 May 2026
ANALYSIS: There is an old saying about three kinds of lies – lies, damn lies and statistics. The same could be said for percentages.
The Wellington City Council has voted in a 5.8% average rates increase for this year, an undoubtedly heroic effort that required the once-fractured council to work together to trim costs like few believed it could. It is the lowest rates rise since the 5.1% in 2020.
But there is a difference between 5.8% now and and 5.1% then – and it is far more significant than 0.7 percentage points.
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Looking at one Wellington house, my own, and relying on some back-of-the-envelope maths, the 5.1% increase was on an annual base of about $3500 in 2020. The real-world increase cost me $179 a year.
Years of large rates rises mean I am now paying almost $6800 in rates. That 5.8% increase is a real-world increase of nearly $400.
This is not to criticise the fine work the largely-cohesive (bar one notable exception) council has done in getting the lower rates rise over the line. It is worth noting that Auckland, with a mayor who looks down on Wellington, just voted in a 7.9% increase.
And it comes on the back of years of big costs hitting the council coffers. Some, such as the blown-out cost to fix the Town Hall, are of the making of previous incarnations of the council.
Others, such as sky-rocketing insurance or disasters ranging from quakes to floods, are not.
But the reality is, a 5.1% rates rise in 2020 is less than half what it would be now.
For those of us in work, with wages that ideally go up each year, it is unsettling but manageable. For those on fixed incomes, largely retirees, things just get harder. It is the heater they can’t keep on, the meal they can’t eat, or the day trip they can’t make.
Meanwhile, the contents of the annual plan have been – compared to other years – largely prosaic, with a few exceptions.
“I can’t afford to live in Wellington,” one constituent wrote to councillor Andrea Compton.
“I can’t afford to die either.”
This is because, down below the headline details in the budget was a planned 20% increase in cremation fees. It was ultimately voted down in favour of increasing cremation costs with inflation.
One change that absolutely didn’t miss the public gaze was the controversial vote to increase the rates paid by short-term accommodation providers, largely Airbnb hosts.
The council ultimately voted for adding a 2.6-times multiplier on their residential rates.
It is a debate where both sides make good points.
Airbnbs are a commercial enterprise and, as such, should pay closer to the the 3.7-times multiplier paid by commercial building owners. There has, at least in the recent past, been times of serious housing shortages.
It is also true that many Airbnb hosts only rent them out some of the year (but would pay the extra rates the whole year), many are doing it to help pay the soaring council rates, they are often not places suitable for long-term accommodation, and they do not use any more council resources then any residential house.
But ultimately, it seems to be impossible to police. Will council staff be secretly posing as Airbnb guests? Will they patrol neighbourhoods in the dead of night checking who has the lights on? Or will they just rely on honesty?