‘Opportunity’ knocks to grow Timaru

Calls are being made for the Timaru District Council to zone more land for affordable housing, as businessmen fear the district’s growth could stagnate.

Nigel Gormack, director of Gormack Associates, told Stuff there was a need for the council to plan for growth, rather than manage it, and said he would like to see more land opened up for residential development.

Gormack said he was particularly concerned that the council’s growth management strategy had planned for population growth of only 6 per cent over 30 years.

‘‘It is not a target for growth at all. Timaru should be looking at what Rolleston and other parts of Selwyn district have done in the past few years,’’ Gormack said.

‘‘The reality is that you have got businesses that are crying out for new staff but you do not have the affordable land for housing that should be available for young families especially.’’

Gormack said he believed the council was focused on ‘‘infill’’ for residential land availability.

‘‘In simple terms, if they keep the developments within confined areas, then the cost to the council is kept to a minimum.

‘‘That is solely self-serving,’’ he said.

‘‘But if we could deliver larger developments, thereby at reduced prices per sections, then young families (or indeed anyone who can access KiwiSaver grants) and others could afford new houses here.’’

Gormack said part of the issue was the fact a lot of the desirable land was tied up in private ownership.

‘‘It is a simple issue of supply and demand, and it makes sense for them to hold on to it, and release it strategically,’’ he said.

‘‘The thing is, Timaru does have potential for real growth. ‘‘We just need to plan for it.’’ Jennian Homes Mid and South Canterbury general manager Dwayne Prendergast agreed and said there was a ‘‘real opportunity’’ for Timaru to grow.

‘‘But it is about finding that easy to develop flat land in order to keep development costs down,’’ Prendergast said.

‘‘You look at places like Rolleston and they are going gangbusters because they have got plenty of land.’’

Gormack said that in the provinces the KiwiSaver grants for new builds were capped at

‘‘It is not a target for growth at all. Timaru should be looking at what Rolleston and other parts of Selwyn district have done in the past few years.’’

Nigel Gormack, pictured

$450,000. To build to that budget, sections would have to be available for no more than $150,000, he said.

‘‘You cannot achieve that on a consistent basis from infill development. Only scale allows that to occur,’’ Gormack said.

He said making land available for affordable housing through changes to the district plan could be an option.

‘‘We need to think outside the box a bit,’’ he said.

‘‘The alternative is we become stagnant and do not grow or become more reliant on our older population.’’

Figures released by Infometrics, a Wellington-based economics consultancy firm, in its quarterly monitoring report commissioned by Aoraki Development, show the district’s new dwelling consents dropped 8 per cent in 2019, while the wider Canterbury region rose 11.3 per cent.

The council has been approached for comment.