For the purpose of this information, "lease" means Crown lease.

To vary a lease means to add, remove or change one or more of its provisions. This does not include unit titles. Variations are defined as development in the Planning and land Act 2007 and require development approval. Where your proposal includes design and siting and a lease variation, only one development application is required.

Types of variations

The variation of a lease can include one or more of the following:

• varying the lease purpose to permit additional/alternative uses;
• varying development rights and obligations where you want, for example, to extend your gross floor area to accommodate future growth;
• subdividing a single block of land into two or more blocks of land;
• consolidating two or more blocks of land into a single block of land; and
• varying other requirements stipulated in the lease, for example, car parking.

All variations are contingent on Territory Plan requirements.

Implementation of approved variations

Depending on the type of variation sought, an approved variation may be executed:

• by instrument of variation registered against the title to your property; or
• by surrender of your lease and the regrant of a new lease to you.

Where the proposal involves a subdivision, consolidation or change in density of development, the variation will be executed by surrendering the existing lease and regrant of new lease.

Generally, where the proposal involves a minor change, for example the payout of land rent, the variation will be executed by an instrument of variation.

Get development approval

You will need to arrange for a valuation assessment (which includes a valuation report and valuation certificate) to be submitted with your development application to vary your lease.

You may be required to pay a change of use charge. The valuation assessment submitted should address the before and after values (V1 and V2) of the lease.

Get help

Contact us to get early information about existing and potential lease provisions.

How to begin

We suggest reading through the information pack and thinking about the factors mentioned in this section and how it relates to the rest of your development before contacting us to discuss preparing an application.