Wakefield Regional Council has shown its support for the Seabreeze Estate at Port Wakefield, with a 100 per cent rebate offered for the developer and new residents.
At its February meeting the council approved that in accordance with its rating policy to provide a 100 per cent rebate for general rates, excluding service charges such as Community Wastewater Management Scheme, for the 2024/25 financial year.
The council will also provide each new resident upon purchase and settlement of the land, for stages 1-3, a 100 per cent rebate for general rates, excluding service charges, for the 2025/26 financial year.
These rebates aim to help with costs associated with developing the land and providing a marketing opportunity to help with the sale of the allotments to potential buyers.
Seabreeze Estate project manager and cosecretary Warren Bund had applied for the rate rebate in late 2023, in a letter to the council the justification was for the economic benefits the development would generate for the regional area, and future benefits for the council’s rate base.
Mr Bund in his letter stated in 2023 dollar value, the cost to create the 351 allotments is more than $33 million plus the estimated costs to build the 351 houses of $114 million, with the multiplier effect of such expenditure in the order of 4-5 times these sums.
The council outlined the developer rebate applied for 2024/25 would equal a cost to council of $2223, while the resident rate rebate for stages 1-3 for 2025/26 would be about $855 per allotment sold.
Speaking in favour of the rate rebate, councillor Malcolm May said this short term cost would help to get something important to Port Wakefield, and to the council up and running.
“We’ve got nothing except a swamp out there at the moment, and no rates,” he said.
“It’s such an important, critical thing for our council, for Port Wakefield to get this project going, and for what that’s going to cost us over 100 years of rate, or 200 years of rates, is absolutely nothing, but it also gets the town going, because it’s so critical.”
Supporting housing projects like Seabreeze is in line with the council’s Wakefield 2030 plan, which aims to grow the population of the council are by 10 per cent by 2030.
Mayor Rodney Reid said the council was supportive of developments that brought more housing to the area, and would look to provide assistance anywhere it could, in line with Wakefield 2030.
“We want to be proactive to get developments going,” he said.
“To achieve our goals in Wakefield 2030, we need as much housing developments as we can get.”
The news of the rate rebate was welcomed by Ray White North Adelaide principal Rachel Lawrie, who is handling sales and marketing for
Seabreeze.
“It’s an amazing incentive to invest, whether you’re a first time buyer or looking for an investment opportunity in the area and know you’re getting that rate rebate as such,” she said.
Ms Lawrie said tenders were about to go out for civil works, which will run for a one month period, after which the site will be ready for works to begin.
