Christchurch City Council rules out rates discount for inner-city new home buyers

Jake Kenny Reporter from Community News

A rates discount for new home buyers in central Christchurch is off the table after being rejected as an incentive to lift inner-city population.

The Christchurch City Council has also ditched the idea of providing a shared-equity scheme for the central city over concerns it will be duplicated by similar programmes run by the Government.

The decisions come after a new long-awaited report into the supply and demand of central city homes found the council has little influence over construction and land costs, which have the biggest impact on the cost of housing. The report was due in July last year.

The council wants 20,000 people living within the four avenues by 2028. The latest estimates from Stats NZ​ has the population at 7170, up 8.3 per cent on the previous year.

About 230 homes have already been completed in the central city this year, another 41 are being built and 127 are consented but work has yet to start. By the end of the year, more homes will have been built in 2020 than in any other year for the past decade.

But the council still faces an uphill battle to reach its population target, with another 4500 homes needed over the next eight years.

The report found inner-city residential developers are hampered by land supply and quality issues, uncertain demand, strong competition from the suburbs and finance conditions.

“Buyers are value conscious and the central city does not currently offer value compared to the same-priced alternatives,” the report said.

Potential buyers believed they could get better value for money in the fringe suburbs close to the four avenues.