Infrastructure charges on an industrial development: how they work in Brisbane and Moreton Bay

By Brenscot Builders | Last reviewed September 2026

Infrastructure charges are the line item people find late. They are not a construction cost, they do not appear in a builder's price, and on an industrial development they can be one of the larger single payments in the project. They also fall due at the worst possible moment in the cash cycle.

This article explains how the charge is built up, what actually drives the difference between one site and another, and where the traps are. It does not publish rates. Councils index their charges and re-adopt them on their own cycles, so any figure printed here would be wrong within months. What does not change is the mechanism, and the mechanism is what you need to understand to budget.

The short answer

A council levies infrastructure charges under an adopted infrastructure charges resolution made under the Planning Act 2016. For an industrial use the charge is worked out on two bases at once: per square metre of gross floor area, and per square metre of area impervious to stormwater. A credit applies for demand already on the site from an existing lawful use. The amount on your charges notice is not the amount you pay, because charges index between the day they are levied and the day they are paid. Payment for building work falls due when the final inspection certificate or certificate of occupancy is given. The water utility levies its own charges separately.

Where the charge comes from

Under section 113 of the Planning Act 2016, a local government may by resolution adopt charges for providing trunk infrastructure. That resolution does not itself levy anything; it sets the rates. The charge is levied on a particular development through an infrastructure charges notice.

There is a ceiling. Section 112 provides that a regulation may prescribe a maximum amount for each adopted charge, and Schedule 16 of the Planning Regulation 2017 is where those prescribed amounts sit. A council cannot adopt a charge above the maximum adopted charge for that use.

The mechanism worth understanding is in section 112(2). The maximum is not a fixed number that sits still until the Regulation is amended. For each financial year it is the prescribed amount in force at the start of the year, plus an amount reflecting the percentage increases for each financial quarter since the amount was last prescribed. The percentage increase is defined as the three-yearly moving average quarterly percentage increase in the producer price index. In other words the statutory ceiling escalates quarterly on its own.

Section 114 allows different adopted charges in different parts of a council's area, and allows a resolution to include an automatic increase provision for increases between levy and payment.

Two charge bases, not one

This is the part most people miss, and on an industrial development it matters more than anywhere else.

Industrial and warehouse charges are levied on gross floor area and, separately and simultaneously, on impervious area. A warehouse with a modest building and a very large sealed yard is charged on both, and the yard is often the larger of the two areas.

The definitions do real work. Brisbane's resolution defines gross floor area as the total floor area of all storeys measured from the outside of external walls and the centre of common walls, excluding areas used for building services, plant or equipment, access between levels, a ground floor public lobby, a mall, parking, loading or manoeuvring vehicles, and unenclosed private balconies.

So your loading area and your manoeuvring area are outside gross floor area. They are not outside the charge, because once sealed they are impervious area.

Impervious area is defined as the area of the premises impervious to rainfall or overland flow. Brisbane's own examples of areas that are not impervious are instructive: an area that is not sealed and comprises compacted dirt, crusher dust, road base, gravel, limestone or loose stone. That is a genuine design lever. Where a yard genuinely suits an unsealed pavement, the charge treatment differs from a sealed one. Whether unsealed is appropriate is an engineering and operational question, not just a charges one. See hardstand options.

What actually drives the difference between two sites

Rather than comparing headline rates, these are the inputs that decide what you pay.

The use category. Warehouse, low impact industry and medium impact industry generally attract one rate; high impact industry attracts a materially higher one. Getting the use category right at development application stage is worth more than most value engineering.

Gross floor area and impervious area, measured to the resolution's definitions rather than to the architect's area schedule.

The demand credit. The charge is levied on extra demand, not total demand. Brisbane's resolution works this as development demand less demand credit, where the credit reflects demand already generated by an existing lawful use, a previous lawful use, existing lots or other lawful development on the premises. A site with an existing building and existing sealed area carries a credit that a bare paddock does not. Establishing that credit is worth real money and depends on evidence of the lawful use.

Which part of the council area the site is in, because section 114 allows different charges in different parts of the local government area.

The date you will pay, because of indexation.

Any trunk infrastructure you have to build, which brings in offsets and refunds.

The figure on the notice is not the figure you pay

Both Brisbane and Moreton Bay index charges from the day the charge is levied to the day it is paid.

The two councils run on different cycles, and this is the most practically useful difference between them. Brisbane re-adopts its infrastructure charges resolution annually, with a new resolution commencing on 1 July each year. The City of Moreton Bay is still operating under a resolution that applies to development approvals given on and from 5 October 2022 and has not re-adopted since, so its base rates sit at their 2022 level and the entire gap between then and now is carried by the indexation provision.

The consequence is the same in both places: a rate read straight out of a resolution is never the amount payable. Moreton Bay publishes a spreadsheet calculator for working out the indexed amount, and caps the indexed charge at the maximum adopted charge applying at the time of payment.

If you are budgeting a project that will complete in two years, budget the indexed figure, not the levied one.

When it falls due

Section 122 of the Planning Act 2016 sets the payment triggers:

Section 122 is expressly subject to section 123, which allows the council and the recipient of the notice to agree that the charge may be paid other than as required by section 122, or that infrastructure may be provided instead of paying all or part of it. If the charge is subject to an automatic increase provision, that agreement must state how the increases are payable.

For a warehouse the trigger is almost always the certificate of occupancy. That is practical completion: the point at which you have spent everything and have not yet settled a sale or started collecting rent. If the timing is a problem, section 123 is the lever, and it has to be agreed with the council rather than assumed.

Offsets and refunds

Where a development approval imposes a necessary infrastructure condition requiring you to build trunk infrastructure, and that infrastructure serves premises other than yours, section 129 applies.

If the establishment cost of the infrastructure is equal to or less than the levied charge, the cost is offset against the charge. If the establishment cost is more than the levied charge, no amount is payable for the development approval and the council must refund the difference.

There is a deadline that catches people. Under section 137, if you disagree with the establishment cost the council has used, you may require it to recalculate using the method in the charges resolution, but the notice requiring that recalculation must be given before the levied charge becomes payable under section 122. Miss that point and the council's number stands.

There is also a conversion pathway, where infrastructure originally conditioned as non-trunk can be converted to trunk and so become offsettable. The criteria sit in the council's resolution.

Appealing a charges notice

You can appeal an infrastructure charges notice, but not on the ground that you think the charge is too high.

The grounds under the Planning Act are that the notice involved an error relating to the application of the relevant adopted charge, or the working out of extra demand, or an offset or refund; that there was no decision about an offset or refund; that the timing stated for a refund is wrong; or that the amount is so unreasonable that no reasonable local government could have imposed it.

The appeal must be started within 20 business days after the day the notice is given. That is a short window, and the useful grounds are factual: wrong use category, wrong gross floor area, wrong impervious area, wrong demand credit. Those are worth checking carefully the week the notice arrives.

The water utility charges separately

Council infrastructure charges are not the whole headworks exposure. In South East Queensland the distributor-retailer levies its own charges under the South-East Queensland Water (Distribution and Retail Restructuring) Act 2009: Urban Utilities in Brisbane, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and Somerset, and Unitywater in Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast and Noosa.

This is not a minor add-on. Schedule 16 of the Planning Regulation expressly splits the prescribed amount into a distributor-retailer portion and a council portion, and for the gross floor area component the majority of the prescribed amount sits with the water utility rather than the council.

There is a structural consequence worth designing around. The gross floor area limb is split between the water utility and the council. The impervious area limb sits wholly with the council. So a building-light, yard-heavy industrial development is proportionately more exposed to council charges than to water charges, and a building-heavy one is the reverse.

The water utility's notice arrives separately, is indexed separately, and has its own payment terms. A developer who has budgeted only the council's charge has budgeted part of the exposure.

Priority development areas

Section 113(3) excludes several things from adopted charges, including development in a priority development area under the Economic Development Act 2012. If you are looking at industrial land inside a PDA, the charging framework is different and worth confirming early.

What we would do

Frequently asked questions

How are infrastructure charges calculated for a warehouse in Queensland?

On two bases at once: per square metre of gross floor area, and per square metre of area impervious to stormwater. The rates come from the council's adopted infrastructure charges resolution, capped by the maximum adopted charge in Schedule 16 of the Planning Regulation 2017. A credit applies for demand already generated by an existing lawful use.

Why is the amount I pay higher than the amount on my notice?

Because charges index from the day they are levied to the day they are paid. Both Brisbane and Moreton Bay apply an automatic increase, capped at the maximum adopted charge at the time of payment.

When do infrastructure charges have to be paid on a new warehouse?

For building work, when the final inspection certificate or the certificate of occupancy is given, under section 122 of the Planning Act 2016. A different timing can be agreed with the council under section 123.

Can I appeal an infrastructure charges notice?

Yes, within 20 business days of the notice, but only on limited grounds: an error in applying the adopted charge, in working out extra demand, or in an offset or refund; no decision about an offset or refund; the timing of a refund; or that the amount is so unreasonable no reasonable council could have imposed it. You cannot appeal simply because the rate is high.

Are council charges the only infrastructure charges?

No. The water distributor-retailer, Urban Utilities or Unitywater, levies its own charges separately under the South-East Queensland Water Act. For the gross floor area component, most of the prescribed amount sits with the water utility.

Sources

General information only

This article is general information, current as at September 2026. It is not planning or legal advice. Infrastructure charges rates, resolutions and indexation change, and the amount payable is specific to the site, the use and the date of payment. Brisbane re-adopts its resolution annually. Confirm the current position with a town planner and the relevant council and distributor-retailer before relying on any figure.

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