Calculating your rates

Your 2023–24 rates notice includes:

  •  how your rates are calculated.
  • 4 rates instalment amounts - the total due for 2023–24.

Rates notices explained

Rates fund services, and building and maintaining local infrastructure and facilities. They are paid by owners of properties in the shire. Find out what your rates pay for or review the 2022-26 budget.

To work out how much you pay in rates, your property’s CIV is multiplied by the ‘rate in the dollar'.

Independent valuers work out the Capital Improved Value (CIV) of your property each year. Find out about property valuations

The amount of rates you pay depends on the value of your property compared to other properties in Cardinia Shire.

The rate in the dollar is calculated by dividing the total amount of rates revenue we need to collect for the year by the total value (CIV) of all rateable properties in Cardinia Shire.

To keep things fair, the rate in the dollar varies according to the type of property you own.  

Rates-in-the-dollar for 2023-24
Levy Rate in CIV ($)  Description
Urban residential 0.0022287 Land with a dwelling in the Urban Growth Corridor (except retirement village units). 
Urban commercial and industrial 0.0030210 Commercial, retail and industrial properties in the Urban Growth Corridor (except for electrical substations). 
Urban farm land 0.0017704

Farms of 40 or more hectares in the urban growth corridor. 

For farms less than 40 hectares: By application; dependent on intensity and scale of agricultural activity.

Urban vacant land

0.0047712

Vacant residential land in the urban growth corridor.
Farm land  0.0015625

Farms of 40 or more hectares outside the urban growth corridor. 

For farms less than 40 hectares: By application; dependent on intensity and scale of agricultural activity.

Base rate  0.0020833 All properties that do not fit into the other differential categories, including retirement village units and electrical substations.

Capital improved value x rate in dollar = Council charges

+ Fire Services Property Levy

+ waste charges

− or + credit or arrears

− Pensioner Concession

= Annual total

An example

Property value $850,000 in the Urban Residential category

$850,000 x 0.0022287 = $1,894.40 in Council charges

add Victorian Government charges and waste services charges. 

We have complied with the Victorian Government’s rates cap of 3.50% increase for 2023-24. This means the total rates revenue we can collect across the shire can only increase by a maximum of 3.50% on last year. 

Your rates may not have increased by 3.5%. This is because the rate cap applies to the total rates revenue we can collect. It does not apply to individual properties, or other charges on your rates notice such as waste service charges, supplementary rates or the Victorian Government's Fire Services Property Levy.