Managing developer contributions

Why this is important

Development contributions are payments or in-kind land and works contributions that housing developers provide to help build the infrastructure growing communities need. They aim to fund infrastructure upfront to avoid lags between people moving in and services and facilities coming years later.

As of 30 June 2024, the government and local councils had collected more than $5.1 billion in development contributions. This excludes levies collected by local councils from 1995 to 2015 when there was no aggregate reporting. There is little transparency around how contributions are prioritised and spent, especially by local councils. 

But our 2020 report Managing Development Contributions found that development contributions are not delivering the infrastructure needed by growing communities to support their quality of life, and that there is no overarching strategy, goals or plan for these contributions.

What we plan to examine

We plan to examine: 

• if the Department of Transport and Planning and State Revenue Office have implemented the actions they proposed in response to the recommendations in our 2020 report Managing Development Contributions
• if development contributions are delivering the infrastructure and services growing communities need.

Who we plan to examine

Department of Transport and Planning

State Revenue Office

A selection of local councils

Further information

This builds on our report Managing Development Contributions (2020).