The highest rent in Sydney?
Dinghy owners being ripped off by unscrupulous councils to store dinghies on the foreshoreThink your pen fees or mooring fees are high? Consider this: the Boat Owners' Association of NSW has reported in its newsletter the BOA Advocate that dinghy owners in Sydney are doing it tough.
The Advocate reports: "Councils with frontage to Sydney Harbour are making a fortune from boaters in renting out spaces to store dinghies. The rentals are amongst the highest being charged for rental spaces throughout Sydney – well above any comparable rental rates.
"A typical dinghy storage is about 2.6sqm, shared between two dinghies at $860 each. That’s revenue of over $600 per square metre.
"Local residential properties work out at about $40 to $60psqm; waterfront licences (jetty, pontoon) are about $20 to $55. The storage fee for a small dinghy at Mosman or Manly is more than the mooring fee for a 11m boat in Sydney (Middle Harbour, and east of the Bridge, or Pittwater).
"These fees are out of all proportion to any cost of administration of maintenance.
"In most cases councils have received boating funds as part payment for initial construction, and for most sites the construction was many years ago. The administration cost must be negligible, as it amounts to little more than issuing a new sticker each year: councils rarely enforce their own rules, and access is often rough and overgrown.
"The situation will improve somewhat when the councils are amalgamated, as more boaters will be able to get access to discounts provided to ratepayers. But the rates are still far too high, and there is an urgent need for review of the rates being charged."
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