The real estate boom led developers to compete for central city land and sell out before construction begins
After more than a decade, Christchurch’s central city population has finally breached pre-quake numbers, thanks to a record rise in home building.
Statistics New Zealand estimated the population within the city to be at 8,080 – up from about 8,000 pre-quake and 5,000 in 2013, but still short of the city council’s 20,000 target.
From a slow start, Christchurch house building is now at record levels, after the real estate boom led developers to compete for central city land and sell out before construction begins. One in 10 homes approved by the city council last year were in the central city, Stuff reported.
Read more: Christchurch housing market: what happens next?
Mike Blackburn, author of the Canterbury Construction report, said the approved 358 new homes for the inner city in 2021 was 26% more than the previous year, and the biggest number he had seen.
Most houses were in medium-density developments of about 20 dwellings, and with few or no car parks. Each inner-city unit has an average build cost of $198,000, excluding land and other development-related costs.
Williams Corporation, Mike Greer Homes, and Fletcher Living are some of the property developers with ongoing central city construction projects.
Mike Greer Homes is seeking consent to build 86 homes on the former Breathe Village site opposite Latimer Square, which it purchased from the Crown for $11 million. Huadu International will construct 44 terraced homes opposite Cranmer Square. In the city’s Crown-led east frame, Fletcher Living has sold 250 homes, is building another 63, and has consent for 38 more.
The Crown is still in talks with developers over two other east frame blocks it put up for sale last year, but had already received “substantive offers” on both sites, a spokesman for Crown rebuild company Ōtākaro said.
The council recently scrapped its central city waiver of the development levy normally charged on new dwellings, and now intends to consider new incentives.
Read more: Christchurch City Council reveals plans after joint-housing policy update
According to council figures, 239 new homes were built in the central city last year and another 55 homes were under construction. There were also 311 building consents granted with work yet to start. From a total of 2,442 central city homes in 2015, 3,861 were built or under construction by the end of last year, Stuff reported.
