A rateable valueThe 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. is the Valuation Office's estimate of the annual rent your property could have been let for on 1 April 2024. Most properties are floor area multiplied by a rate per square metreThe value per square metre used to build up a property's Rateable Value. Comparing your £/m² rate to similar nearby properties is the main way to check whether your RV looks too high.; shops are valued in zones, so the frontage is worth several times the back of the unit.
A rateable value is the VOAThe government body that sets every property's Rateable Value. From April 2026 the VOA is part of HMRC (see below), but 'VOA' is still the common name for the valuation side of the work.'s estimate of the annual rent your property could reasonably have been let for on a fixed date. For the 2026 rating list that date is 1 April 2024. Every property in England is valued as at the same date, which is what keeps the comparison between them fair even though the list runs from 2026.
Most properties: floor area times a rate
For the majority — offices, industrial units, warehouses — the method is straightforward in principle. The VOA measures the floor area, applies a rate per square metre drawn from rental evidence in that location for that kind of property, and adjusts for anything unusual about the unit.
That makes the sensible comparison between two such properties the rate per square metre, not the headline rateable value. A large unit with a high rateable value can be perfectly well assessed; a small one with a low rateable value can be badly over-assessed.
Shops: the zoning method
Retail is different, and this is where most confusion starts. A shop is valued in zones measured back from the shop window:
- Zone AIn shops, the first 6.1 metres of depth from the shop front — the most valuable trading space, and the benchmark rate (£ per m²) used to value the whole unit. — the first 6.1 metres of depth. Carries the full rate per square metre.
- Zone BThe next bands of depth behind Zone A. They're valued at a fraction of the Zone A rate (commonly half of Zone A for Zone B, half of that again for Zone C) because space further from the shop front is worth less to a retailer. — the next 6.1 metres. Worth half the Zone A rate.
- Zone C — the next 6.1 metres. Worth a quarter.
- Anything beyond, plus storage and ancillary space, is valued lower again.
The logic is that frontage sells. The first few metres inside the door do most of the commercial work, so they carry most of the value.
Additions, allowances and adjustments
On top of the zoned or overall floor space, the VOA adds items valued separately — air conditioning, mezzanines, car parking spaces — and applies allowances for disadvantages such as poor access, an awkward shape, restricted loading or a return frontage. These are recorded on the valuation and are frequently where a factual error hides.
Properties valued on trade instead
Pubs, hotels, cinemas, petrol stations and similar are not valued on floor area at all. They are valued on receipts and expenditure — broadly, what the business could reasonably be expected to turn over, worked back to a rateable value.
There is no meaningful per-square-metre comparison for these, so a comparison tool cannot tell you whether the valuation is in line with the market. We say so rather than showing a figure that would mislead. The right next step for these is a surveyor experienced in licensed or leisure valuations, who can review the trade figures behind the assessment.
What actually makes a case
A challenge needs a proper ground and evidence, not a feeling that the number is high. The strongest cases rest on a factual error in the recorded details — a floor area that is simply wrong — or on rental and comparableA similar nearby property used as evidence for what your Rateable Value should be. Good comparables share your property's type, size band and location. evidence showing the assessment is out of line with genuinely similar properties.
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General information, not financial or legal advice. Independent service — not endorsed by the VOA or HMRC. Official rateable values and formal decisions come only from the VOA/HMRC. England only.