Prepare for rates hike as council pushes for budget surplus
Douglas Shire
Council rates for many Douglas Shire homeowners will be going up by about $130 on average in the 2025/26 financial year, but that figure will vary greatly between different homes depending on a host of factors.
For a house or apartment which is your principal place of residence with a land-only value of less than about $700,000, the median increase will be $126 per year, according to a report tabled in this week’s Douglas Shire Council meeting.
The minimum rate for that category of house will be $1319, up $98, or about 8 per cent, from $1221 in 2024/25.
For a home you own, but do not live in, with a land value of up to about $700,000, the median rate increase for owners is $168 per year, with the minimum rate $1638, up more than 11 per cent from $1470 last financial year.
Mayor Lisa Scomazzon said the rate increase amounted to about $2 per week for owner-occupiers and $3 per week for investors.
“This rate increase for 2025/2026 is not taken lightly,” Mayor Scomazzon said.
“It reflects the real costs of delivering essential services such as clean drinking water, weekly rubbish collection, safe roads, and the operation of our libraries, pools, and community facilities.”
On top of the rate rise there are various other charges many ratepayers will have to pay, including about $640 per year for weekly rubbish collection, and a special fire brigade levy of between $8-$50 depending on which district you live in.
In Douglas Shire, rates are calculated by multiplying the “unimproved capital value” of your property by a “rate in the dollar” set each year by the council.
The UCV, determined by the State Government Resources Department, is the value of the land only.
A typical house in Mossman currently has a land value of about $120,000, while one in Port Douglas has a land value of about $290,000, which was determined during the last time values were recalculated here in 2021.
DSC has 23 different rating categories, including houses with land valued at up to about $700,000, $700,000 to $1.3m, $1.3m to $2m and more than $2m, all of which are also then divided into principal places of residence and non-PPRs.
Then there are various residential unit categories, farmland categories, commercial precincts and separate ratings for the marina and sugar mill.
The DSC held a series of four closed workshops to determine the new rate rises, but did not discuss the changes in any public meetings during the 2024/25 financial year.
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