Double dipping.

Plans have been announced for a new estate of nineteen thousand homes at West Dapto, a suburb of Wollongong. There is an urgent need for low cost land sites in this region, but on present indications this estate will not meet that need.
West Dapto is flat, arid grazing land. It has no views of the sea or magnificent Lake Illawarra and it's only pretence to an oulook is the background of the escarpment. It is hot in summer and cold in winter, but at least it is flat and offers level building sites.
The problem is that these building sites will not be cheap. Both the state government and the council have stars in their eyes and a predatory outlook towards costs.
The Council is intending to invoke the Section 94 levy to provide money for infrastructure at the rate of between $ 40,000 and $ 50,000 per block. The state government is proposing an additional levy of between $ 10,000 and $ 15,000 per block. Together, this looks like a $ 60,000 levy per block before land costs, development costs and developer's profits are added to the mix. The end result will be blocks of land costing about the same as those elsewhere in Wollongong and Shellharbour.
This is sheer greed. The state government will reap a bonanza from stamp duty when these blocks are sold - and again when homes are built and sold to owners. They will also gain from stamp duty and registration costs on the cars new owners will need - because unlike Sydney - there will be no government bus services provided.
The council will gain a motza from sky high rates - which are an impost on home owners to provide the very same services that the council will have been paid to provide from the section 94 levy.
The sad thing is that with both entities double dipping, the battlers who will provide the majority of the residents of West Dapto will be mired in deep debt for the majority of their working lives. For many, the option of owning their own home will remain a dream. No doubt developers will get the blame for the huge cost of this new land release - but the thinking public will know that the co-bandits are the state government and the local council !