‘Infrastructure tax’ for homeowners in new housing project north of Auckland

Property owners in a new development north of Auckland will pay an infrastructure tax, added to their rates bills, to help fund the project.

A partnership will fund $91 million of roading and wastewater infrastructure to help the building of 9000 homes at Wainui, about 40 kilometres north of Auckland.

The Government Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been created in partnership with Auckland Council, Crown Infrastructure Partners and Fulton Hogan Land Development, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Phil Twyford and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said on Tuesday.

“This project enables nearly 4000 new dwellings in Milldale and the infrastructure can support another 5000 dwellings in the surrounding areas as well. It’s a big step towards meeting Auckland’s housing needs,” Goff said.

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T​he funding will be repaid partly by Fulton Hogan Land Development and partly by section owners as an ‘infrastructure payment’ collected with council rates bills.

That meant long term debt could be raised to enable the building of large-scale infrastructure, which is needed to step up the rate of houses being built, and to help councils  nearing their debt limits, Twyford said.

Fulton Hogan Land Development, with a joint venture partner, has already developed Millwater on the eastern side of the northern motorway, and saw Milldale as the next evolution of this urban development.

Twyford said in the Milldale project, there was private investment in new infrastructure with the debt sitting on a balance sheet belonging to neither the council or the Government.

“The Milldale project is an example of the innovative new approaches to financing infrastructure that the Government is developing through the Urban Growth Agenda. This funding model can be used in other high growth areas affected by the housing crisis to help more houses to be built more quickly.

“This could include private investment in infrastructure funded by a charge on the properties that benefit from the infrastructure.

“This new infrastructure funding model will result in a large number of homes being built much sooner than otherwise would have been the case.”