WC 331: property purchase - state highways

This page relates to the 2024-27 National Land Transport Programme.

Introduction

This work category provides for the purchase of land by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) (for its own activities) for new and improved transport infrastructure.

Qualifying activities

Work category 331 is available to the state highway 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 (NZTA as investor) whether other potential activities not listed above might also be eligible for inclusion in this work category.

Exclusions

Work category 331 excludes:

• property purchase costs of less than $500,000 – these are to be included in the project costs conducted under the appropriate work category phase, and a separate property phase is not required.

Application to other activity classes

The work category, principles and conditions of property purchase for state highways may be applied to property purchase in relation to other activities classes, for example public transport improvements (work categories 561, 562 and 563), and walking and cycling improvements (work categories 451 and 452), where we have agreed that it will assist the funding for property purchased for land transport purposes.

Work category 561: public transport facilities and infrastructure improvements - bus

Work category 562: public transport 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, for example work category 561, 562 and 563 for public transport infrastructure projects.

Conditions for funding property purchases

Conditions for eligibility for funding property purchases include:

• all costs must be identified by project and available for audit
• 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 legal road, with each individual property to be identified on the plan, and
• total gross property purchase costs and the estimated value from disposal of surplus land are to be entered and updated in the property phase in Transport Investment Online

Transport Investment Online(external link)

Funding assistance rate

The usual funding assistance rate (FAR) is:

• 100% of the NZTA costs.

Submitting activities for NLTP consideration and funding approval

NZTA (for its own activities) submits these property purchase activities using the improvement template in Transport Investment Online (TIO). The application will be for the property phase of a project.

Transport Investment Online(external link)

For guidance on using TIO, see the TIO learning and guidance page on our website.

Transport Investment Online (TIO) learning and guidance

The activity owner updating TIO and SAP 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.