TAXES AND CHARGES ON NEW HOUSING

Australians today expect to have a range of basic services when they purchase a home. These include sewerage, drainage, water, electricity, roads, public transport and facilities such as schools, hospitals, parks and libraries (collectively described as urban infrastructure).

Much of this infrastructure is usually funded through up-front charges to developers. These charges are applied by both state and local governments and are known by a variety of names, including infrastructure charges, infrastructure levies, developer contributions, developer charges and developer levies.

In addition to infrastructure charges, there is a wide variety of other taxes and charges that are applied to residential developments in Australia which add to the cost of new housing production, the price paid by homebuyers and indirectly, to the volume and strength of housing supply.

In light of the recent increases in house prices in Australia's capital cities and increased concerns about housing affordability, the use and application of infrastructure charges and other mechanisms to fund urban infrastructure has become increasingly important.

This report seeks to produce a snapshot of the current scope, reach and quantum of property taxes that are levied on new housing as at June 2018 based on an illustrative 'typical' development for greenfield and infill projects that was then 'built' in different cities.

The metrics provided in this report are for a series of illustrative dwellings of certain characteristics and are not meant to reflect the 'average' house across Australia. Instead, they allow for a fair comparison of development costs across different cities. 

Download the submission below. 

Note: The findings in this report are subject to unavoidable statistical variation. While all care has been taken to ensure that the statistical variation is kept to a minimum, care should be taken whenever using this information. This report only considers information available to ACIL Allen up to the date of this report and the findings may be affected by new information.