Extract from the Summary

Auckland’s population has grown significantly over the past decade and it is forecast to continue growing into the future. Auckland currently has around 1.4 million people, although expectations are for a future population of 2.3 million people by 2051. Auckland Council plays a role in planning the future growth of the city. It has already undertaken several studies to improve its understanding of how best to accommodate the future population. This study, undertaken by the CIE and ARUP, further builds the evidence to inform the Council’s future land use planning decisions.

Study purpose and approach

This study was commissioned under Action 15 of the Housing Action Plan, which called for Council to undertake more thorough empirical research showing the true cost of servicing different types of development and assessing the impacts of location and typology.

This study is part of a wider research program by Council assessing land use policies.

The stated aims of the study were to:

• Inform and improve plans for growth (e.g. efficient allocation of land supply) and the integrated delivery of infrastructure
• Enhance asset management planning
• Promote affordable housing outcomes
• Enhance financial policy development (e.g refine development contributions policy)

It was decided to use a case study approach using actual costs – or estimates of costs – based on known projects. It was envisaged that this would allow a direct comparison between developments with different characteristics that could then be used to benchmark costs for future developments. It was hoped that this would be of particular use for asset management planning and for understanding the alignment between the costs of servicing different developments and charges to users/developers.

This project looks at cost information from a number of current (or recently completed) developments with an aim to informing Auckland Council about the expected range of costs associated with servicing future residential sites based on their location and intensity of development. This will include the costs relating to the range of services provided by the Council to service new developments as well as Central Government costs relating to new developments:

• water, wastewater and stormwater services
• transport infrastructure
• community services and parklands. ...

January 2015

See also

Centre for International Economics, CIE