House section prices will rise by between $8000 and $33,000 if the North Shore City Council introduces a new levy on subdivisions on July 1.
Deputy Mayor Dianne Hale said the council proposed to introduce the developer contributions to make those creating the need for additional council works andservices pay the associated costs.
Development contributions would pay for reserves, transport, water supply, wastewater collection and treatment, stormwater collection and management and community facilities such as libraries, leisure and community centres.
"This shifts the burden of paying for new infrastructure needed as a result of growth from ratepayers to developers," she said.
The council hoped contributions would yield an extra $195 million for works over the next decade.
Ms Hale said the council's power to demand contributions was new and came from the Local Government Act.
Ms Hale said the council wished it had that power during the strong growth of the past five to six years but hoped to capture further development as the city filled out.
David Johnstone, of Universal Homes, who is developing 150 house sections at Greenhithe, said the idea of developer contributions was fair.
But they would be an added cost to the average section of $12,000 to $15,000 in a climate of supply and demand that had caused section prices to soar.
The fees apply to those who subdivide or cross-lease their sections, who build on vacant sections, or who obtain a building consent for a self-contained unit that will be separate from an existing house.
Subdividing an Albany section into two would attract a contribution of about $16,500, including $7500 for parks and reserves.
The council's asset manager, Graham Nielsen, said the cost varied according to the value of a section.
The formula for calculating the reserve contribution was 7.5 per cent of the section value. In the case of other services such as stormwater and transport, throughout most of the city the contribution ranged between $8000 and $16,000 a household.
But in the Long Bay-Okura area it might be between $16,000 and $33,000, because it was a new area opening up for building with fewer households to share the cost of new sewers, drains and roads.
