WHAT DOES A MONOPOLY COST A HOME BUYER? ASK PAPAKURA.

An infrastructure provider that holds new build housing up drives up the cost of housing for all.

Brent Melville’s piece in NBR this morning writes about what has been happening in Papakura.

One developer was asked for a $302,000 bond before Veolia would approve four completed homes in his 12 unit development. He had a signed works agreement to share a wastewater upgrade about two kilometres from his site with two other developers. A year later he was told to fund all of it and use a Veolia preferred supplier. That quote came in at about $300,000, more than double the $144,000 from the next highest private quote by a qualified drainlayer.

The process cost him eight months of his build. He will not build in the suburb again.

Watercare told NBR that growth charges came to $98.5 million for the district over six years. How much of it will find its way back into the Papakura network? On top of that, Veolia adds a 2 per cent admin fee for collecting it.

On Stats NZ data, infill development in Papakura has gone from about 10 per cent of Auckland’s dwelling consents before the pandemic to closer to 3 per cent now.

I recently read the Auditor-General’s review of this franchise in 1998, written one year in, and a key finding was of “inadequate provisions” for long term asset management and infrastructure investment. There is no technical process to audit the operator.

Now Watercare says it is bound by a legacy agreement and could not stop the renewal even if it wanted to. That is another twenty years.

Parliament capped these arrangements at 15 years in 2002. The Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025 lifted the cap to 50 years but specifically excludes franchise and concession agreements. The law has twice said no to this. Papakura is about to get another twenty years of it.

Why does an infrastructure provider not carry an obligation to support growth?

Who set this up? How did we get here? Why can’t it be cancelled?

Who in their right mind would build new housing there now? Will it end up being the government, using taxpayers’ money to pay for upgrades to feed Veolia?