Land development

Guides, charges and rules for big developments

Developers need to know about charges and costs, infrastructure contributions and other essential guidelines to meet our requirements during the land development process.

Planning a big development?
If you're planning large-scale land rezoning, a new development or a redevelopment project, call us on 13 20 92 8am–5:30pm Monday to Friday (except public holidays) for advice. Ask for the Growth & Development team.

Charges

Essential references

Rules about relocating pipes

How to track your applications

Charges

Before you can get your Section 73 Compliance Certificate you may have to pay:

  • infrastructure contributions
  • the cost of constructing new pipes.

Infrastructure contributions

Infrastructure contributions help recover the cost of providing services to new developments. Our infrastructure contributions policy provides more details.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) determines how we calculate infrastructure contributions. Find out more about how we implement IPART's method. This includes a Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment on 1 July each year. You'll be responsible for the contribution amount that is current at the time you're ready to connect to our systems.

IPART's method generates a base price that applies to all developments inside development servicing plan areas. You can use the following map to identify which drinking water and wastewater development servicing plan areas apply to land in our area of operations and the base prices. All development servicing plans registered with IPART are listed below. See our worked examples to find out how we'll apply drinking water and wastewater base prices on your application.
 

Select the symbol on the map's top left-hand corner, then expand the map and select the financial year or years you want to see displayed. You can zoom in to any location to see the specific combination of drinking water and wastewater prices that apply.

About the map

This map is for illustrative purposes only. We will determine the actual development servicing plan areas for specific sites during the Section 73 Compliance Certificate application process.

The prices in the development servicing plans are before inflation, in 2022–23 dollars. They're adjusted each financial year based on the change in the CPI compared to March 2023. The change in CPI between March 2023 and March 2024 was 3.6%. The prices in the map include that CPI increase.

Development servicing plans registered with IPART

See Aerotropolis stormwater development requirements for information on stormwater infrastructure contributions.

Drinking water and wastewater infrastructure contributions are being gradually reintroduced from 1 July 2024. In 2024–25, prices are capped at 25% of the full price registered with IPART. They rise to 50% in 2025–26, with full contributions from 1 July 2026.

Infrastructure contributions for a development can be substantial. They depend on the size and location of the project. We'll tell you about these charges in the Notice of Requirements letter you receive from your water servicing coordinator.
 

Cost of constructing new pipes

If you need to extend or amplify our system to service your development, the decision on who pays is based on our funding infrastructure to service growth policy. Generally the developer pays for the full cost, but sometimes we will pay. You must follow our procurement guidelines for developer works if we pay for any of these works. Your water servicing coordinator can tell you more.
 

Other costs

You may have to pay other costs during the land development process. These could include:

  • checking building plans
  • connecting to our pipes, such as water main drilling costs
  • assessing water mains for fire-fighting capabilities
  • discharging trade waste
  • inspecting plumbing and drainage.

Find out more about current prices for other services. You'll also have to pay your providers for their services. Remember, you can only use our listed providers.

Essential references

We work closely with developers and their providers as part of our development process.

Policies

See our plumbing, building and developing policies for details of what you're required to do during the land development process.

Guidelines

Other information

Rules about relocating pipes

Don't start work to move, remove or replace any Sydney Water pipes until you have our approval. This includes temporary replacement pipes.

You need to engage a water servicing coordinator and lodge an approval application through the e‑Developer system. Include a design of the proposed works and any temporary pipework. We'll review the design and tell you what you need to do to get our approval. This might include lodging a construction bond.

See our Asset adjustment and protection manual and find out more about developer deeds and standard terms.

How to track your applications

You can follow your applications for Section 73 certificates or approvals to move or extend our pipes at developer application progress.

Handy links