Developer charges

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) sets the methodology that Hunter Water must use to calculate developer charges.

Charges vary depending on location. Each area within our network has its own Development Servicing Plan (DSP), which outlines the local water and wastewater infrastructure and explains how the charge has been calculated using the IPART methodology.

To help you understand how charges are worked out, we've created a Developer Charges Guideline, which explains the assessment process and the key information about used in the calculation.

Yes. It is common practice across Australia for utilities, often local councils, to recover the cost of new infrastructure directly from the developments that benefit from it.

Hunter Water and Sydney Water have both followed NSW Government direction to first set developer charges to zero, and more recently, to reintroduce them through a staged approach.

A Development Servicing Plan (DSP) outlines water supply and wastewater developer charges for different areas serviced by Hunter Water. Each DSP details the charges that apply to local water supply, water headworks, wastewater transport, treatment or transfer systems.

Developer charges may apply to certain types of applications where a development connects to Hunter Water's network or increases demand on existing water or sewer infrastructure.

Charges are most commonly associated with Development Assessment applications and Extend Water or Extend Sewer applications. 

In some cases, developer charges may also be payable as part of a Connection application, particularly where a property is connecting to the network for the first time and the charge was not previously paid during the construction of the underlying development.

Whether a developer charge applies depends on the nature of the proposal and the servicing arrangements for the site.

As the applicant, it is your responsibility to:

• Understand how developer charges apply to your project
• Share this information with your clients and other contributors
• Submit all required documents accurately and on time

Existing review time frames still apply. These may vary depending on submission volumes, so we encourage you to act early.

We include an estimate of your developer charge in the Notice of Requirements letter, but the final charge is only confirmed once all Hunter Water requirements have been met. This includes:

• Providing a valid Development Consent or Complying Development Consent, along with any other supporting documents we have requested for your development.
• Completing any required works under a Developer Works Deed
• Submitting a compliant finalisation package (if works are required)

Only once these steps are complete will your developer charge be calculated and invoiced.

You will receive an invoice when your developer charges are ready to be paid. We offer three easy payment options:

• Credit card
• BPAY
• PayID – available for payments over $100,000.

With the reintroduction of developer charges, you will also notice a few new steps in the process:

• We will collect the owner or developer’s contact details as part of the application, so we can issue an invoice
• A Notice of Payment Required (NOPR) will be sent to both the applicant and developer. This outlines the final charge and next steps
• An invoice will be issued to the developer, with payment instructions

Yes. You can estimate your developer charge if you know:

• How many equivalent tenements (ETs) your development will contribute
• Which Development Servicing Plan (DSP) area the property is located in.

To get started, use:

• The Developer Charges Guideline to estimate how many ETs apply to your development – see Appendix A from pages 24-32.
• Our Interactive maps to find the water and wastewater DSPs for your property. Enter the address and note the rates for each service.

Once you know your estimated ETs and DSP rates, multiply them to get a basic estimate:

ET × DSP rate = estimated developer charge

Calculate water and wastewater charges separately.

You may not be able to include credits for existing development on the site, but we will refine your estimate once your application is submitted.

Once you’ve submitted a development assessment application (Section 50), our Land Development Team will calculate the developer charge and include an estimate in your Notice of Requirements letter.

Each developer charge is calculated using three factors:

Type of development – and how much demand it places on our network. This is called the equivalent tenement (ET).

Location of the development – the Hunter region is divided into nine water and 20 wastewater areas, known as Development Servicing Plans (DSPs).

Existing development on the site – if the site has had previous usage, we apply an applicable credit.

The formula used is ET x DSP rate - applicable credits = developer charge.

This calculation is applied separately for water and wastewater.