Making way for new homes

Christchurch’s newest community housing rises from a complex damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes.

This timelapse video produced by the Christchurch City Council in 2016 shows the demolition of Brougham Village.

The land lay bare until 2020, when works started on the first 90 homes that now sit on Hoiho Lane, Karoro Lane and Korimako Lane.

Brougham Village was a council-owned community housing complex made up of 89 Cowey Mills-designed units.

The complex opened in 1978 and was considered a touchstone of late 1970s design.

However it was so badly damaged in the 2011-2012 Canterbury earthquakes that it became uneconomic to fix.

Brougham Village was demolished in 2016, just before the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust was established.

The trust leased most of the council’s community when it started.

The council also capitalised it with cash and land, including the Brougham Village site.

Returning community housing to the site was one of trust’s establishment goals.

It opened Korimako Lane in January 2021. The last of the three communities, Hoiho Lane, welcomed tenants in June 2021.