Many obstacles on way to red-zone housing in Christchurch
Tuesday, 5 May 2026
ANALYSIS: Selling or leasing red zone land for housing will likely present the Christchurch City Council with obstacles that will take years to overcome.
The first barrier arrives on Tuesday.
That is when council staff will formally ask the newly-created Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor Regeneration Committee for permission to talk with social housing providers, iwi, charitable trusts and private developers about red zone housing.
Nothing has been decided. It is not council policy to sell or lease red zone land ‒ yet.
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If the committee gives the nod, then council staff will issue a “request for information” (RFI) to interested parties and see what ideas come through the door.
The RFI will be a “first step to test interest” in red zone housing, staff said in documents prepared for the committee meeting.
Only then will the council take a closer look at things like tenure ‒ whether to sell, lease or form some sort of partnership.
But as some have pointed out since The Press reported the story last week, the land was red-zoned because it was unsuitable for housing. Liquefaction ‒ where silt and water were shaken to the surface by earthquakes ‒ almost capsized some houses. Some were undamaged, but most were left off-kilter in some form.
The Government bought and demolished the lot.
“Any decisions to rezone or redevelop land that is currently red‑zoned need to be approached with a high degree of care,” a spokesperson for the Insurance Council said..
“We would expect developers, other organisations and planning authorities to undertake thorough due diligence, including robust geotechnical assessment and appropriate mitigation work, to ensure land is safe, resilient, and sustainable for the long term, both for future residents and the wider community.
“It’s important that long‑term natural hazard risk, including flooding and land stability, is fully considered as part of any redevelopment planning.”
City council citizens and community general manager Andrew Rutledge said such work has not yet been done.
The potential housing areas were identified in the much-consulted Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor Regeneration Plan of 2019, he said.
Land was identified only at a “strategic” level on the assumption that suitable engineering solutions existed for these sites.
The same assumption underpins greenfield and brownfield housing development across the city, Rutledge said.
Meanwhile, there are the thousands of people who lost their homes after the 2010-11 earthquakes. Some, understandably, would find fresh development difficult to take.
Former Dallington homeowner Alyse Boaz said new housing may not be a bad thing, so long as it wasn’t too close to the Avon River. “But it’s very, very sad, because we had no choice… We were forced off our land.”
She often returns to view the river, watch birds and remember a previous life.
The plan includes 11 “development lots” taking up 12.15 hectares of the 602ha Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor with the potential to hold hundreds of houses.
The mooted dwellings are called “edge housing” because they would be located on the edges of the red zone, where it abuts surviving housing. In some cases, existing fences would be all that separated old and new.
Some have suggested the lots should be devoted to social housing, but the land could also command a premium. Almost by definition, new homes will have uninterrupted views over greenspace and wetlands that will one day be an ecological treasure.
That said, if the committee approves the RFI on Tuesday, here is what still needs to be done before the first housewarming party, according to Rutledge:
“Future stages will determine what may be developed within the designated edge housing areas. Any successful proposal will then progress through site-specific geotechnical investigation, engineering design, building consent, and compliance with current Building Code and post-earthquake foundation standards.”
A lot of work remains.