JOHN BISSET/STUFF
Sue Boyce was unable to afford home ownership after her divorce, but is now happy living in a tiny house she and her son built. He described Christchurch’s new housing as “small, small, and getting smaller” as homebuyers and investors made decisions “driven by affordability”. Another factor was smaller household sizes, he said. The downsizing trend was also evident in subdivisions where smaller free-standing homes were going in. Statistics NZ data showed the average size of new homes approved in Christchurch last year was just 127 square metres, down from more than 180sqm a decade ago. Units consented in the city last year averaged 79sqm, and freestanding houses averaged 177sqm, down from 186sqm the year before. Houses in Selwyn were an average 185sqm, down from 190sqm in 2019.
ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF
Selwyn deputy mayor Malcolm Lyall discusses how students living in Prebbleton have to pay more to get the bus to Lincoln High than if they went to school in Christchurch.
If Canterbury mum Claire Thomason sent her son to an out-of-zone high school in Christchurch, she would pay less in bus fares each day – despite it being almost double the distance. A change to the public transport fare zones in the mid-2000s placed Prebbleton in zone one, making it cheaper for people to travel to central Christchurch than to other towns in their district of Selwyn.
JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF
Mother of five and grandmother of 13 Jimaima Kose had a stroke and was unable to work. She became virtually homeless until she got some support from a local MP and her doctor - and now is a new tenant of Kainga Ora tenant.
Grandmother Jimaima Kose cried tears of gratitude and relief when she was finally offered a new home after years on the public housing waiting list. “I cried. Even though I hadn’t seen the house I just said to my cousin, ‘I think God has answered my prayers and my tears’,” the former nurse aide said.