16 August 2006

Text may be used as quotes attributed to Mr Jeremy Dawkins, Chairman, Western Australian Planning Commission

The WAPC will introduce a new fee structure for statutory planning applications from Monday 28 August 2006.
 
The fee structure is based on the State Government’s full cost recovery policy where those using the service meet the cost of providing the service.

Currently only 39% of the cost of providing planning services is recovered by fees, the balance being subsidised by the State Government. The structure of the new fees will take cost recovery to 68%.

The new fees take into account the effort applied to the assessment of subdivision applications. The community expects well designed and connected neighbourhoods that are environmentally responsible. The expert assessment of proposals ensures that those expectations are met.

The new fee scales remain well below comparable fees in Brisbane, New South Wales and Victoria. In the case of a 100-lot subdivision in New South Wales, the cost is 155% higher than in Western Australia.

The fees charged for subdivision are a negligible proportion of land development cost and will not affect affordability.

The indicative cost of developing a single lot in a typical new suburb is $80 000 per lot for a straightforward 100 lot subdivision.   Under the new fee scale the subdivision application fee will be $2740 (or $27.40 for each lot), which represents 0.03% of the estimated development cost per lot.  The approval fee represents about 0.01% of the reported average sale price per lot of $220 000.

The WAPC is sensitive to the current land supply issue. The WAPC will invest an amount comparable to the fee increase in measures to assist with the release of residential land.

The application forms and application guides are located on the WAPC’s website http://www.wapc.wa.gov.au/Applications/default.aspx

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