New smart phone application gives instant access to rating information

Waikato District Council has developed an innovative new application to provide customers with instant access to rating information through their mobile phones.

Finding out the land value or captial value of a property has never been easier.

The new smart phone application enables customers to stand outside a Waikato district property, hold up their mobile phone so it’s facing the property and have a summary of its rating information appear on the screen over a live camera image.

Waikato District Council Chief Executive, Gavin Ion, said local authorities are required by law to provide rating information to the public. But while most councils display rating information through a Rating Information Database (RID) on their website, Waikato District Council has taken this one step further with Mobile RID.

“Our council is committed to making information accessible to our customers. Mobile RID provides rating information in the right place, at the right time, and is an excellent tool for real estate agents and home buyers who can visualise rating information when they are standing near a property.

“Mobile RID provides another way to access Waikato District Council’s rating information, in addition to our website, visiting or phoning council,” he said.

Mobile RID provides information such as a property’s land value, improvement value, capital value and assessment number. There is also a link through to Waikato District Council’s website should a person want to see the full information in the Rating Information Database.

Mobile RID works on Iphones and android mobile phones. Council used Layar, an augmented reality application to build Mobile RID.

To use Mobile RID all you have to do is download Layar from the App Store onto your mobile phone, search for the WDC RID Layar, install it and then you are ready to use the tool.