Cairns ratepayers getting value for money

Published: 28 July 2021. (Note: information was correct at date of publication but may have since been changed or superseded.)

Cairns ratepayers continue to pay some of the lowest rates and utility charges in the state when compared to similar local government areas.

In an annual benchmarking exercise, Cairns Regional Council has assessed itself against 11 other Queensland local government areas with populations of 100,000 people or more.

Benchmarking was carried out across three categories:

A residential property (excluding strata and flats) paying the minimum rate – this represents 21 per cent of residential properties in the Cairns Regional Council area.A residential property (excluding strata and flats) with the median valuation within its own local government area.A strata title property paying the minimum rate – this represents 88 per cent of strata title properties in the Cairns Regional Council area.

Cairns rated the lowest in all three of those categories.

The local government areas included in the benchmarking exercise are Brisbane, Townsville, Mackay, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Gold Coast, Redlands, Logan, Moreton Bay, Toowoomba and Fraser Coast.