Commercial water prices

Commercial properties include retail trade (shops, shopping centres, department stores and general stores) and wholesale trade (distributors and warehouses where goods are purchased and stored in large quantities, then on-sold to retailers or sellers.)

Water charges are made up of two parts:

1. A fixed charge for water supply.
2. A variable charge for water use – the more you use, the more you pay.

Water supply charge

Reduced prices for water services are lowering the cost of business in South Australia.

For 2020-21 we have moved away from property-based water supply charges for most of our customers, to a fixed rate of $271.40 per year, billed at $67.85 per quarter.

For properties valued more than $10 million, a property-based fee also applies. In 2020-21 the quarterly rate in the dollar applied to commercial customers is $0.1500 per $1000 of property value above $10 million.

Water use price

All businesses will benefit from a reduction of around 18 per cent for water use prices. The 2020-21 water use price for commercial customers is now $2.775/kL (or $0.002775 per litre).

Sewerage charge

Minimum sewerage charges have decreased by 10 per cent and the property rates for  property-based sewerage charges for business customers have reduced by more than 10 per cent. Property rates are set using 2020-21 property values determined by the Valuer General’s Office.

Water and sewerage prices

• $2.775 per kilolitre of water use (down from $3.413 in 2019-20)
• $67.85 minimum quarterly water supply charge (down from $75.40 in 2019-20) with property based charges to also apply to property value above $10 million
• $72.70 minimum quarterly sewer charge (down from $80.80 in 2019-20) with property-based charges to apply above the minimum.