What do rates pay for?
Rates make up the majority of the City's revenue.
Rates help pay for more than 100 different community services and programs. These include the Fremantle Arts Centre, the library and toy library, Fremantle Leisure Centre, festivals and events, waste collection, environmental services, infrastructure maintenance, sporting and recreation facilities, community safety, customer service, street cleaning and so much more.
- See the services your rates help fund and what perks are available to you as a ratepayer
- See the budget highlights for 2024–25
- View over 100 projects and activities happening across the City this financial year in our online interactive map
How are rates calculated?
This video also explains how rates are calculated:
Why have overall average rates increased in 2024/25?
The past five years has seen the City of Fremantle experience significant milestones in the completion of a once-in-a-generation revitalisation of the city centre, as well as the unprecedented impacts of a global pandemic on the City’s discretionary revenue sources.
Since that time, global economic conditions have driven rapid inflation and increasing cost pressures across most developed economies. Western Australia has not been immune to this, and Local Governments have had to absorb significant increases to the cost-of-service delivery and wage growth. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3% in the 12 months to the March 2024 quarter. This lower CPI % has allowed the City to have a lower overall increase of 5.4% for 2024-25 as compared to 9% in 2023-24.
While the City will have to continue to navigate these high costs for the delivery of construction and other services, it must also remain focused on investing in the renewal of our existing assets.
To deliver the hundreds of programs, initiatives and activities that help our residents and visitors live, work and play in a city like nowhere else in the world, we need to ensure our revenue sources remain sustainable.
When are rates notices issued?
The City expects to issue rates notices in early August 2024.
Why are there separate differential rate categories?
The City applies differential rates by taking into account the levels of services provided to different types of properties, the cost of providing services to certain types of properties, as well as the need to encourage certain types of activities in the city.
Our categories are:
- Residential improved
- Residential vacant
- Commercial and industrial general
- Commercial and industrial vacant
- City centre commercial
- Residential short-term accommodation
What is the Emergency Service Levy (ESL)?
The State Government introduced an Emergency Services Levy (ESL) in 2003/04 to fund the services provided by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services of Western Australia (DFES). Local Councils across the state are required to include the levy on their rates accounts and collect it on behalf of DFES. Enquiries regarding ESL may be directed to DFES by;
- Phone 1300 136 099
- Visiting the DFES website