The City of Johannesburg will introduce new property rates by July next year, mayor Amos Masondo said on Thursday.
Announcing the indicative rates, Masondo said the new rates would take into account the land and improvement or the current value of a property.
”The draft general valuation roll has been released for public comment,” he said.
The City of Johannesburg announced the release of the draft rate policy in July this year, in line with the implementation of the Municipal Property Rate Act.
Masondo said 755 written submissions had been received since the city invited comments from the public and 26 public meetings had been held around the city.
He said that the rates that homeowners would pay were based on two main pillars — the rate policy and general valuation roll.
”Neither of these have yet been finalised but the draft versions of both have already been made available for residents of Johannesburg.”
Under the new rates scheme, schools will pay 50% less and pensioners whose property is valued at less than R500 000 will not pay rates. They would, however, have to register to be exempt from rate payments.
”We are currently investigating the impact of the proposed rates policy and the draft general valuation roll on sectional-title properties and we are holding a series of public meetings with sectional-title owners and managers to hear their concerns and views”, he said.
Masondo said that some homeowners would be more affected more than others.
”We have tried to minimise the impact on those people through consideration in our policy, the draft tariffs and asking the public to comment on the draft valuation roll,” he said. – Sapa