Waikato Herald
  • Waikato Herald home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Rural
  • Lifestyle
  • Lotto results

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Lifestyle
  • Lotto results

Locations

  • Hamilton
  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Matamata & Piako
  • Cambridge
  • Te Awamutu
  • Tokoroa & South Waikato
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Weather

  • Thames
  • Hamilton
  • Tokoroa
  • Taumarunui
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Waikato News

Growth boosts surplus

By Ged Cann
Hamilton News·
26 Aug, 2015 11:32 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Hamilton City Council's finance committee last week heard the organisation had an unaudited $5m balancing-the-books surplus at the end of the financial year.

The report pointed to development contributions as being the largest contributor to the favourable result, but a leading property developer in the city has warned that these contributions cannot be relied upon.

Development contributions are payments made to council following the purchase of land in order to use the infrastructure put in place by Council.

Property developer Ian Patton said he was not suprised at the spike in development contributions in the past two years, which previously had never reached above $9m and went as low as $1.4m in 2006.

"The market is very good at present as far residential property is concerned.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He said developers could expect to pay around $30,000 to the council per residential lot, and with around 600 sections being developed per year it wasn't suprising the figure was so high.

He said the figures were sustainable for the next two years, but after this point developers would hit a wall.

"We are going to run out of land," he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In the short term, however, Mr Patton said he couldn't understand the Council's reduced prediction for next year, which sees developer contributions slip to $7.4m.

"I don't know why that would be. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out the developement will continue. Just pick up a newspaper."

"At the moment there's been a lift in construction activity but they can't rely on it because it's not sustainable. The Council has started a regime of rationing land to sustain the income, but that won't work either."

Councillor and finance committee chair Rob Pascoe said development contributions covered about 53 per cent of the actual cost of developing the infrastructure, which includes such things as water and gas pipelines and roads.

Mr Pascoe said the 47 per cent loss was offset by the growth the city would see when the land was developed.

"The money comes in as each section is sold. The logic is it helps growth. The arguement is that the whole of Hamilton will use those roads," he said.

He said relying on the contributions was always a gamble because they came with high cost and there was no gaurantee the council would recoup it.

Development contributions have spiked in the last few years, rising from $8.9m in 2013 up to $15m in 2014 and $15.8m this year.

"There are two things driving the development contributions, economic activity and Hamilton being a desirable destination."

Mr Pascoe puts the dip in next year's estimated development contribution revenue down to it being a conservative estimate.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

This uncertainty is compiled by larged fluctuations in funding coming from developer contributions between different months of the year.

"Of course we don't know how much we are going to get in development contributions each year.

"With dairy incomes dropping and the sorts it may slow down."

Mr Pascoe said development contributions revenues constituted five-eighths of the surplus, and without them the council would have broken even rather than shown a $5m surplus.

Mr Pascoe said Council had also shaved costs in the organisation and sold a number of assets to achieve the surplus, including a carpark on Knox Street, the BNZ and ANZ buildings as well as a number of smaller sections of land.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Waikato News

Waikato Herald

Second venomous sea snake washes ashore in Coromandel

12 Jul 06:00 AM
Waikato Herald

Home build dream shattered after business hacked and woman launders couple’s $150k

12 Jul 01:00 AM
Waikato Herald

Landslide sparks evacuations, roads closed, homes flooded after storm

12 Jul 12:43 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Waikato News

Second venomous sea snake washes ashore in Coromandel
Waikato Herald

Second venomous sea snake washes ashore in Coromandel

12 Jul 06:00 AM

These snakes are highly venomous – the public and pets should keep clear.

Home build dream shattered after business hacked and woman launders couple’s $150k
Waikato Herald

Home build dream shattered after business hacked and woman launders couple’s $150k

12 Jul 01:00 AM
Landslide sparks evacuations, roads closed, homes flooded after storm
Waikato Herald

Landslide sparks evacuations, roads closed, homes flooded after storm

12 Jul 12:43 AM
Legal hook means buyers risk losing thousands on some Kāinga Ora homes

Legal hook means buyers risk losing thousands on some Kāinga Ora homes

11 Jul 08:45 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Waikato Herald e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Waikato Herald
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP