This page relates to the 2021-24 National Land Transport Programme.
Introduction
This work category provides for the purchase of land by approved organisations for transport improvements. The application for funding approval of property purchases is made at the same time the application is made for implementation funding.
Qualifying activities
Work category 332 is available to the local road improvements activity class.
Local road and state highway improvements
Examples of qualifying activities
Examples of qualifying activities include, but may not be limited to:
- valuation
- legalisation surveys, including plan fees payable to Land Information New Zealand – no other expenses involved in the legalisation process are eligible for funding assistance
- acquisitions
- compensation
- additional compensation and disturbance payments in accordance with the Public Works Act 1981.
You can discuss with us (Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency as investor) whether other potential activities not listed above might also be eligible for inclusion in this work category.
Exclusions
Work category 332 excludes:
- property purchase costs of less than $500,000 – these are to be included in the project costs conducted under the appropriate work category and phase, ie a separate property phase is not required
- where an exchange of land occurs between a private landowner and an approved organisation, or where land is vested in an approved organisation by a private owner required to do so without monetary payment for the land, the transaction does not qualify for funding assistance. However, where these involve payment of land transfer fees or stamp duty, these costs can be included as acquisition costs.
Application to other activity classes
The work category, principles and conditions of property purchase for local roads may be applied to other activities classes, eg public transport improvements (work category 561, 562 and 563), walking and cycling improvements (work categories 451 and 452).
Work category 561: Passenger facilities and infrastructure improvements – bus
Work category 562: Passenger facilities and infrastructure improvements – ferry
Work Category 563: Public transport facilities and infrastructure improvements – rail
Work category 451: Walking facilities
Work category 452: Cycling facilities
Property purchase for other activity classes will be funded under the same work category that will be applied to construction/implementation of the project, eg work category 561, 562 and 563 for public transport infrastructure projects.
Conditions for funding property purchases
Conditions for eligibility for funding property purchases include:
- funding assistance is considered only at the time of the application for construction/implementation funding assistance, and the cash-flow for property purchase set out in Transport Investment Online is expected to coincide with the initial cash-flows for construction/implementation
- funding assistance is based on the greater of the purchase price or current market value of the net property required for the land transport project and is to exclude any property held for other purposes or property surplus to the project that is being on-sold
- unless otherwise agreed by us, the net property for road improvement projects will be that legalised as road reserve
- the basis for establishing current market value will be agreed with us prior to submission of the funding application – the default methodology will be an independent valuation, however, our experienced property acquisition staff may advise an alternative methodology is appropriate based on the scale involved and property market movements since the property was purchased by the approved organisation
- any payment for betterment recovered in terms of section 326 of the Local Government Act 1974 shall be a credit to the cost of the project
Betterment for local road improvements
- all costs must be identified by project and available for audit, and
- a land plan must be available for audit purposes and must indicate the area of land to be purchased and the part that is to be converted to road reserve, with each individual property to be identified on the plan.
Funding assistance rate
The usual funding assistance rate (FAR) is:
or
Submitting activities for National Land Transport Programme consideration and funding approval
Approved organisations submit these property purchase activities using the improvement activity module in Transport Investment Online (TIO). The application will be for the property phase of a project.
Transport Investment Online(external link)
The activity owner updating TIO should not automatically assume that the activity class is a road improvement. Instead they (in consultation with our investment advisor) will need to select which activity class will be funding the property acquisition.
