The council’s property development debt for properties without a principal repayment plan in place now stands at $5,747,746, down from $10,156,078 in 2014.
Council property manager Renee Julius’s report to the assets committee, to be tabled today, shows that through the sale of surplus property and rate funding some of the interest cost, the council paid off $2,950,028 of its debt in the past 12 months.
"The thing is we want to focus on it [debt] while the interest rates are low," Mrs Julius said yesterday.
"If the interest rates go high, you pay more. We actually want to focus on that while it’s cost-effective to do that."
There had been some "huge" sales this year. The council sold the remaining 13 sections at Omarama subdivision Cirrus Place and made an 8ha block sale at Oamaru’s north end business park this year, knocking a combined $2,454,673 off the council’s books and eliminating the debt on both those properties.
"It all comes down to timing, doesn’t it?" Mrs Julius said.
The largest outstanding property debt on the council’s books is $3,406,793 on the Oamaru Opera House. Ratepayers are paying $240,000 a year on the opera house debt, Mrs Julius’ report states. Debt repayment talks are planned for councillors during the upcoming 2018-28 long-term plan budget discussions.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said if Oamaru endowment funds were used for the upgrade required at the Oamaru Courthouse, and the building was listed as an endowment property, any surplus from that building through the lease the council had negotiated with the Ministry of Justice could be used to pay off the debt of the opera house.
But he also noted both the Cirrus Place and the business park debt were for "strategic purposes".
The Cirrus Place debt was incurred when the council bought land at the eastern end of the Omarama Airfield in 2006, to ensure the airfield’s sustainability. And the council land at the business park was bought to ensure the council had the ability to establish a link road through the business park — a project that was approved in this year’s annual plan.
