Christchurch homes are to be revalued by the Christchurch City Council as if they have had all earthquake repairs completed.
The council has been carrying out the first revaluations since 2007, after the 2010 valuations were cancelled due to the earthquakes.
The city council says the revaluations will be based on recent property sales for comparable nearby properties.
It says valuations won't take into account earthquake damage, as it is assumed damaged properties will be returned to their pre-quake state when repairs are completed.
The council says this is the most practical method available, as it isn't possible to physically inspect all 165,000 properties in the time available.
It says market reaction to the quakes will, however, be taken into account, so if prices in an area have risen or fallen due to the earthquakes this will be reflected in the value.
But an earthquake community group says many Christchurch people will be angry if their rateable value goes up based on quake repairs which are yet to happen.
Cancern spokesperson Leanne Curtis says she accepts this may be the only option, but it will upset some people.
She says nobody wants to be paying full rates on a property which they can't sell because they are still waiting for earthquake repairs to be completed.
Ms Curtis says until all repairs and rebuilds are completed people may just have to accept that the valuations are imprecise.
The new valuations will be issued in March.
Group fears big valuation drops could threaten mortgages
A Christchurch earthquake advocacy group fears dramatic changes in property valuations may put mortgages at risk.
Brent Cairns, from the Wider Earthquake Communities Action Network, says he expects to see some big drops in values, particularly in the worst affected areas, such as red zone land which is deemed uninhabitable and TC3 land which is prone to liquefaction.
He says this could make banks reassess the mortgages.
Mr Cairns says his red zoned Kaiapoi property went from a rateable value of $350,000 to $25,000, even though his family plans to remain there.
However, Christchurch mortgage broker Tony Mounce says banks generally are only interested in a person's ability to pay their mortgage.
He doesn't expect much of a drop in the value of the TC3 areas because people now know what has to be done in those areas if any rebuilding takes place.
Mr Mounce says with such a long gap, people will be very curious to see what their properties are now worth.
