Canterbury singled out as home provider
Canterbury is being held up as an example to other parts of New Zealand of how to provide enough homes and affordable prices.
A study by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) says the region is leading the country in delivering housing.
Canterbury’s “unusually collaborative approach” in planning and funding housing has made it a leader, “providing lessons to other parts of the country experiencing housing shortages and high prices”, the study says.
At $650,000 for Christchurch and $649,000 for Canterbury, the region’s median house price is $325,000 lower than Auckland’s, and more than $100,000 lower than in Wellington and several other regions. The national median home price is $760,000.
Greater Christchurch had its largest ever population gain in 2023. Its three councils approved construction of more than 56,000 houses in the past decade, including 6000 homes in the past year. Two-thirds of recent housing consents for Christchurch city have been for units including townhouses or apartments.
NZIER, a non-profit independent research unit, said Canterbury’s housing approach dates from before the earthquakes.
“The reasons are rooted in Canterbury’s tradition of region-wide planning.”
It noted the region had consented one home for every two additional residents since 2011, while prices are lower than in the other major centres.
“Although Canterbury lost over 9000 homes during the earthquake, it has built itself back and is well along the path out of a housing shortage,” said NZIER senior economist Ting Huang.
“The price gap between Canterbury and New Zealand as a whole has widened since the last year of the earthquake rebuild.”
The study also describes issues with Canterbury’s housing delivery, including more development on the edges of the city than intended, “which could lead to greater infrastructure costs down the line.”
While the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) forged partnerships between central government, local councils and iwi, it also drew criticism by overriding local decision-making to increase housing density and speed up consenting, the researchers said.
According to property analyst CoreLogic, the average value of a home in Christchurch now is 65% higher than a decade ago. Rents in the city have risen 37% in the past five years, Government bond figures show
After the earthquakes new subdivision consents were fast-tracked on the outskirts of the city, while inner suburbs and hubs near buses and shopping centres were rezoned for medium-density housing.
Much of the planning for growth in the wider city area has come from the Greater Christchurch Partnership, a coalition of local councils including Environment Canterbury, Government agencies, and Ngāi Tahu.
Mike Blackburn, author of the Canterbury Construction Report, said construction costs in the greater Christchurch area had risen along with the national trend, while demand had pushed land prices up even faster.
Blackburn said high land costs were partly behind the move toward smaller homes and multi-unit developments.
“Without question Christchurch, Selwyn, and to a lesser extent Waimakariri, have certainly had a construction boom in the last few years,” he said.
He said the boom and bust cycle of construction would lead to an oversupply of some types of homes, and the industry needed to be more sustainable.
Huang said there was a strong need for central and local government to work together, with local authorities “fully involved in shaping their cities”.
Christchurch City Council in 2022 pushed back against a new housing intensification mandate from the Government.
It is about to restart a hearing panel process on the required changes, but Housing Minister Chris Bishop has agreed to delay decisions on medium-density residential standards.