Infrastructure funding for Sydney needs big rethink: Property Council Australia

There has been a mish-mash of infrastructure charges across Sydney’s growth areas with some of the highest growth areas being hit with big charges and a poor system for determining costs, according to new research from the Property Council of Australi

The research, originally conducted by Elton Consulting and supplemented with recently released population data from the ABS, claims areas of high growth need a better system for funding infrastructure with the charge placed on one dwelling taking up to 27 mortgage repayments to pay off.

“Sydney is growing and needs infrastructure, but we haven’t got the right funding system for delivering it. Currently communities in high growth areas are paying high infrastructure costs on their homes and this is not sustainable or equitable,” Acting Property Council NSW Executive Director William Power said.

“These areas are quickly developing and so there is often a layer cake effect to the charges – some charges coming from the State Government, others from local government – money drawn from multiple sources for much needed infrastructure.

“The blame for this scenario does not lie with any particular level of government, but rather in a lack of focus and line of site of what is being charged, for what infrastructure and for what community outcomes. This is made worse by the fact that some Councils are trying to administer up to 8 different contribution plans.

“At the moment, no one has a complete view of what is being charged and for what outcome across Greater Sydney and this is resulting in higher charges in some areas than others - It needs a rethink, and our recently elected state government needs to tackle this issue as one of their top priorities.”

The Property Council believes the State Government needs to:

• Conduct an audit and create an online record of all infrastructure charges across Sydney

• Create an infrastructure charges calculator that tells the community or industry what the infrastructure charge on each dwelling will be in a suburb.

• Give IPART (Independent Pricing and Regulatory Authority) greater resourcing and remit to review more contribution plans, review and edit the essential infrastructure list and ensure the community is getting the right infarstrcure to support growth from these contributions