The official estimate of a property's annual rental value on a fixed valuation date. Your rates bill is based on this figure, not on what you actually pay in rent.
Your rateable value is the Valuation Office's estimate of the annual rent your property could have been let for on a set valuation date — for the current 2026 rating list, that date is 1 April 2024. It is not what you actually pay in rent, and it is not your bill.
Your bill is built from the rateable value, not the other way round: the council multiplies your rateable value by the government's multiplier (roughly 50p in the pound) and then applies any reliefs you qualify for. So a rateable value that has been set too high quietly inflates every year's bill until it is corrected.
Rateable values are set using bulk valuation methods and rarely reflect a physical inspection of your specific unit, which is exactly why they can be wrong. Comparing your rateable value — and the £ per m² behind it — against similar nearby properties is the main way to spot an assessment that looks too high and worth challenging.
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