New Christchurch village may rise out of quake rubble

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 6:11p.m.

By Amanda Gillies

A bare 203-hectare block of farm land on Christchurch’s northern fringe may have 2,500 houses built on it, housing as many as 8000 people.

“Hopefully, with everyone working together, we can get on and try to deliver some sections to market to help some of the people affected,” says property developer David Schwartfeger.

The land's less than six kilometres from what was the heart of the city.

It connects onto existing subdivisions, two golf courses. The plans include a primary school, a supermarket and retail centre, so effectively it's own little village.

If it's given the go-ahead the project will cost up to $400 million. Already $2.5 million has been spent on planning and making sure the land is safe.

“We haven't had any damage in lateral spreading, liquefaction, it's been a good area, still continues to look good,” says Mr Schwartfeger.

Gerry Brownlee's backing the decision to extend sub-dividable land.

“It's my strong contention that as we spend over $20 billion repairing this city our population will grow. As of today we have 5000 new people in the market for new homes,” says Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee.

The city already has 11,000 sections currently serviced and available, a further 6000 are in the consent process.

But with so many people leaving the city, will so many sections and sub divisions be necessary?

“Most people who leave do come back. My guess is the population of Christchurch will be stable a few months from now,” says researcher Dr Tom Love.

For those who do decide to say, ANZ has committed $1 billion in new mortgage lending and introduced a special low interest rate for a year.

3 News