Ipswich land valuations and your 2026-27 rates, worked through

On 11 March 2026 the Valuer-General issued new land valuations across the Ipswich City Council area, the first for the city since 2023. Council now uses those valuations, averaged, to set general rates. The figure on the valuation notice is a value for the land alone, struck at a past date. It is not what the house would sell for.

The dates on the 2026 notice

The Department's page on the 2026 land valuations says the valuations reflect land values at 1 October 2025 and took effect from 30 June 2026. Ipswich was one of 15 local government areas valued in that round.

Ipswich is not on the list for the 2027 valuation program announced on 5 August 2026. Unless the land is revalued individually, after a subdivision or rezoning for example, the 2026 figure is the one that carries forward.

What the Ipswich figures show

The Valuer-General's Ipswich City Council overview reports 90,878 properties revalued, a total land value of $48,637,790,710 and a 51 per cent increase since the 2023 valuation. The overall median for residential land was $430,000, up 54 per cent.

For the suburb of Ipswich itself, the same table puts the median residential land value at $465,000 at 1 October 2025, against $290,000 at 1 October 2022. That is a change of 60.3 per cent across 722 properties. North Ipswich moved 60.8 per cent, West Ipswich 60 per cent and Coalfalls 60.4 per cent. These are medians for land, not house prices.

Site value leaves the house out

Urban land in Ipswich is valued on site value. The Department's guide to rural and non-rural land says houses, fences and other structures are not included, and that its valuers prefer vacant land sales. Its page on valuation methods adds that renovations are not taken into account.

So a restored house and a tired one on similar blocks in the same street can carry similar land values. A sale, a bank valuation or a capital gains tax valuation is about the whole property on a particular day, which is why the notice cannot stand in for any of them.

How council turns the valuation into general rates

Ipswich City Council's 2026-2027 Budget says the rateable value for the year is the three-year averaged value of the Valuer-General's valuations, with an averaging number of 0.77 under section 76 of the Local Government Regulation 2012. The rateable value on your rates notice can therefore differ from the 2026 valuation notice. Use the rates notice figure.

General rates are that rateable value multiplied by the rate for your rating category. In the budget, category 1, owner-occupied residential land outside Brookwater, is 0.4893 cents in the dollar with a minimum of $1,298. Category 9, residential land outside Brookwater that is not owner occupied, is 0.6465 cents in the dollar with a minimum of $1,760.

A worked example in place of a calculator

We could not find a rates calculator on the council's website when this guide was written, so here is the arithmetic. The figures are hypothetical.

The budget sets these rates for the 2026-2027 financial year and levies them in four quarterly instalments, so the sum gives a yearly figure that is spread across four notices.

An owner-occupied house with a rateable value of $350,000 would attract $1,712.55 in general rates for the year at 0.4893 cents in the dollar, or about a quarter of that on each quarterly notice. The same rateable value on a rented house in category 9 would attract $2,262.75. At a rateable value of $250,000 the owner-occupier calculation gives $1,223.25, below the minimum, so $1,298 would apply.

That is general rates only, before any limitation on increase. Council's budget announcement set the 2026-2027 waste utility charge at $553, and the notice carries other levies as well.

The budget also limits the increase in general rates for these categories to 15 per cent over the 2025-2026 levy, with conditions. One is that ownership has not changed between 31 March 2026 and 30 June 2027, apart from listed exceptions such as transmission on death. A buyer who settled in that window should not assume the limit applies.

Objecting, and the deadline that has passed

According to the Department's objection process page, objections must be lodged within 60 days of the notice's issue date, and the period for the 2026 valuations closed on 11 May 2026. Late objections are accepted within a year of issue only in limited circumstances, such as incapacity or an extraordinary emergency.

The Department's grounds for objection require evidence such as comparable sales. Comparisons with median prices, asking prices or the cost of rates are not accepted.

When you need a market valuation instead

A capital gains tax return, an SMSF audit or a family transfer needs the market value of the whole property at a stated date. Order a CGT valuation for an Ipswich address, or ask a valuer which report fits. Answers to other common questions are on the FAQ page.