Victoria's 2024-25 rate cap was 2.75%. The average rate rose faster in 44 of 79 councils.
Victorian councils all stayed inside the 2.75% rate cap, and the average rate per property still rose faster than the cap in more than half of them. The cap and your bill are not the same thing. Here is what each of the 79 councils charges.
Victoria is one of two states that cap council rate rises. New South Wales has pegged growth in council income since 1977, through what is now an IPART determination; Victoria caps the average rate itself. Each year the Minister sets the Victorian cap — 2.75% for 2024-25 — and the Essential Services Commission reports on whether councils stayed inside it. For 2024-25 every one of the 79 councils did.
In the same year, the average rate per property assessment rose by more than 2.75% in 44 of them.
Both of those statements are true, and the gap between them is the most useful thing a Victorian ratepayer can understand about the cap.
What the cap limits
The cap applies to a council's total revenue from general rates and municipal charges, divided across its properties. It does not apply to your property, and it does not apply to the whole bill:
- Waste and service charges are not capped. For many households the bin charge is the fastest-rising line on the notice, and the cap never touches it.
- The cap limits an average, not a bill. Within a council, a revaluation moves rates between properties. If your land rose in value by more than the council's average, your rates rise faster than the cap even when the council complies exactly.
- New homes count. The measure below divides rate revenue by the number of assessments, and that number grows as suburbs are built out. A growth council's average moves for reasons that have nothing to do with a decision about rates.
- Councils can ask for more. A council may apply to the Essential Services Commission for a higher cap. Glen Eira has an approved cap of 5% for 2026-27.
So "every council stayed within the cap" and "most average rates rose faster than the cap" are not in conflict. They measure different things, and only one of them is the number the government reports.
What each Victorian council charges
The figure is the average rate per property assessment, from the Local Government Performance Reporting Framework, which every Victorian council must file. The 2024-25 financial year is the most recent published.
This figure covers all rateable properties — houses, farms, shops and factories together. Victoria does not publish a residential-only average, so a council with a large industrial base will read higher here than its household bills alone would suggest. That is a limit of the source, not of the council.
| Council | 2024-25 | 2023-24 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine | $1,945 | $1,886 | +3.1% |
| Ararat Rural | $2,002 | $1,993 | +0.5% |
| Ballarat | $2,086 | $2,056 | +1.5% |
| Banyule | $1,787 | $1,751 | +2.1% |
| Bass Coast | $1,727 | $1,677 | +3.0% |
| Baw Baw | $2,138 | $2,089 | +2.4% |
| Bayside | $2,086 | $2,033 | +2.6% |
| Benalla Rural | $2,119 | $2,056 | +3.1% |
| Boroondara | $2,253 | $2,189 | +2.9% |
| Borough of Queenscliffe | $2,387 | $2,324 | +2.7% |
| Brimbank | $1,847 | $1,777 | +4.0% |
| Buloke | $2,140 | $2,090 | +2.4% |
| Campaspe | $2,035 | $1,983 | +2.6% |
| Cardinia | $1,880 | $1,845 | +1.9% |
| Casey | $1,767 | $1,723 | +2.6% |
| Central Goldfields | $1,555 | $1,513 | +2.8% |
| Colac Otway | $2,023 | $1,961 | +3.2% |
| Corangamite | $2,335 | $2,273 | +2.7% |
| Darebin | $1,764 | $1,698 | +3.9% |
| East Gippsland | $1,807 | $1,765 | +2.4% |
| Frankston | $1,795 | $1,725 | +4.0% |
| Gannawarra | $1,855 | $1,806 | +2.7% |
| Glen Eira | $1,577 | $1,522 | +3.6% |
| Glenelg | $1,852 | $1,784 | +3.8% |
| Golden Plains | $2,052 | $2,020 | +1.6% |
| Greater Bendigo | $1,949 | $1,882 | +3.6% |
| Greater Dandenong | $2,123 | $2,053 | +3.4% |
| Greater Geelong | $1,802 | $1,728 | +4.3% |
| Greater Shepparton | $2,449 | $2,375 | +3.1% |
| Hepburn | $1,748 | $1,701 | +2.8% |
| Hindmarsh | $1,660 | $1,650 | +0.6% |
| Hobsons Bay | $2,677 | $2,614 | +2.4% |
| Horsham Rural | $2,228 | $2,123 | +4.9% |
| Hume | $1,715 | $1,634 | +5.0% |
| Indigo | $1,828 | $1,810 | +1.0% |
| Kingston | $1,940 | $1,871 | +3.7% |
| Knox | $1,732 | $1,684 | +2.9% |
| Latrobe | $1,746 | $1,681 | +3.8% |
| Loddon | $1,353 | $1,315 | +2.9% |
| Macedon Ranges | $2,065 | $2,042 | +1.2% |
| Manningham | $2,000 | $1,944 | +2.9% |
| Mansfield | $1,697 | $1,677 | +1.2% |
| Maribyrnong | $2,450 | $2,376 | +3.1% |
| Maroondah | $1,715 | $1,655 | +3.6% |
| Melbourne | $2,345 | $2,245 | +4.4% |
| Melton | $1,779 | $1,725 | +3.1% |
| Merri-bek | $1,914 | $1,916 | -0.1% |
| Mildura Rural | $2,340 | $2,316 | +1.1% |
| Mitchell | $1,947 | $2,000 | -2.7% |
| Moira | $1,908 | $1,856 | +2.8% |
| Monash | $1,697 | $1,654 | +2.6% |
| Moonee Valley | $2,027 | $1,954 | +3.8% |
| Moorabool | $1,979 | $1,935 | +2.3% |
| Mornington Peninsula | $1,659 | $1,592 | +4.3% |
| Mount Alexander | $1,885 | $1,815 | +3.9% |
| Moyne | $1,613 | $1,576 | +2.4% |
| Murrindindi | $1,973 | $1,920 | +2.8% |
| Nillumbik | $2,696 | $2,612 | +3.2% |
| Northern Grampians | $1,730 | $1,698 | +1.9% |
| Port Phillip | $1,765 | $1,725 | +2.3% |
| Pyrenees | $1,584 | $1,531 | +3.4% |
| South Gippsland | $2,282 | $2,219 | +2.9% |
| Southern Grampians | $1,892 | $1,838 | +2.9% |
| Stonnington | $1,647 | $1,592 | +3.5% |
| Strathbogie | $2,476 | $2,373 | +4.3% |
| Surf Coast | $2,314 | $2,253 | +2.7% |
| Swan Hill Rural | $2,333 | $2,310 | +1.0% |
| Towong | $1,875 | $1,831 | +2.4% |
| Wangaratta Rural | $1,962 | $1,895 | +3.5% |
| Warrnambool | $2,162 | $2,107 | +2.6% |
| Wellington | $1,960 | $1,863 | +5.2% |
| West Wimmera | $1,709 | — | — |
| Whitehorse | $1,516 | $1,474 | +2.8% |
| Whittlesea | $1,899 | $1,795 | +5.8% |
| Wodonga | $2,188 | $2,162 | +1.2% |
| Wyndham | $1,997 | $1,882 | +6.1% |
| Yarra | $1,937 | $1,866 | +3.8% |
| Yarra Ranges | $2,161 | $2,118 | +2.0% |
| Yarriambiack | $1,795 | $1,764 | +1.8% |
West Wimmera has no change figure because the source's 2023-24 cell for that council reads $1.66, which is plainly a data error rather than a rate. We found it while building this article; until then it had been on our own suburb pages.
The dearest council charges twice the cheapest
The dearest council (Nillumbik, $2,696) charges almost exactly twice the cheapest (Loddon, $1,353). That is a narrower range than the uncapped Northern Territory, where councils run from $1,016 to $3,391.
The pattern inside it is less obvious. Rates are highest in regional cities (median $2,124), not in metropolitan Melbourne (median $1,880). The grouping is the LGPRF's own:
| Council type | Councils | Median rate |
|---|---|---|
| Regional city | 10 | $2,124 |
| Large shire | 19 | $1,979 |
| Metropolitan | 22 | $1,880 |
| Interface (outer Melbourne) | 9 | $1,880 |
| Small shire | 19 | $1,828 |
A metropolitan council spreads its costs over dense, high-value land and many assessments. A regional city funds a full set of city services — pools, libraries, roads, waste — from a much smaller and more spread-out base.
Who moved most
Growth councils lead the increases: Wyndham (+6.1%), Whittlesea (+5.8%) and Hume (+5.0%) are three of the fastest-growing municipalities in the country, and their averages move as thousands of new assessments join the roll each year.
Two councils' averages fell: Mitchell (-2.7%) and Merri-bek (-0.1%).
What councils expect next
The same reporting carries each council's own forecasts. Across the 79, the median forecast is a 3.2% rise for 2025-26 and about 11% between 2024-25 and 2028-29.
Two councils project far more than that: Greater Geelong forecasts its average rate going from $1,802 to $2,589 by 2028-29, a rise of 44%, and Murrindindi forecasts 36%. These are projections a council files, not decisions it has taken. They are neither capped nor audited, and a forecast can be a placeholder. But they are the councils' own numbers, and Geelong's is the steepest in the state.
How we did this
Every figure comes from one source: the Local Government Performance Reporting Framework dataset published by Local Government Victoria, measure E4, "Average rate per property assessment". We read the FY2024-25 and FY2023-24 sheets of that workbook and compared them per council.
The rate cap figures are the Essential Services Commission's: 1.5% for 2021-22, 1.75% for 2022-23, 3.5% for 2023-24, 2.75% for 2024-25, 3.0% for 2025-26 and 2.75% for 2026-27.
Two checks, the same ones we apply to every rates dataset:
- A year-on-year move of more than half is treated as a broken source cell, not a rates decision, and is dropped rather than published. That is what removed West Wimmera's change figure.
- The published measure is named, so a reader can check us. E4 is not a residential-only figure and we do not present it as one.
The counts in this article exclude West Wimmera from change figures, so "44 of 79" means 44 of the 78 councils with a usable comparison; the 79th is West Wimmera.
What this does not tell you
It does not tell you what you will pay. Your bill is your property's value times your council's rate in the dollar, plus uncapped service charges, and the average above can move in the opposite direction to your own notice.
What it does tell you is which councils raise the most per property, how far apart they are, and that the cap you have read about in the news constrains a statewide average rather than the number at the bottom of your rates notice.