Opportunity for housing redevelopment in Christchurch’s east

Christchurch City Council is looking for help to redevelop 22 former social housing units back into housing for the community.

The Expression of Interest process opens tomorrow for the purchase and development of land within the former Sandilands Community Housing Complex in Linwood.

The 11 cross-lease sites are located throughout Coulter Avenue, Nicholas Drive and Griffiths Avenue off Pages Road.

“The homes were built in the 1940s, sustained a lot of damage in the Canterbury earthquakes and now at the end of their useful lives. As they are uneconomical to repair redevelopment is a better use of the site” Head of City Growth and Property Bruce Rendall said.

“We’re now looking for interested parties who have the ability to purchase the sites, demolish the buildings and redevelop the land with replacement housing.”

Mr Rendall said the Council is interested to hear from groups who can help redevelop the land back into social or affordable housing as part of the Community Housing Strategy 2021-31.

“Not all sites need to be purchased by one entity, we may choose to sell the sites to different organisations to ensure diversity throughout the redevelopment.

“The goal is to achieve similar outcomes to their historical use so a mix of social housing, affordable rental or first home owner homes, and some market housing would be our preferred outcome,” he said. 

"The Council want a city where anyone who wants to be housed can be. We know that we can’t do this alone and need to work with partners in the community and private sector to provide affordable, secure, warm and dry housing. Making our land available is one contribution we can make to these partnerships."

Find out more or submit an EOI from Wednesday 25 October here. Submissions close on Friday 8 December.