New homes on horizon

A now bare site in Richmond offers new hope for people needing a home.

An aerial view of Gowerton Place, site of ŌCHT’s latest housing development.

Work has started on a new community housing development that will provide warm, dry and secure homes for more than 40 people needing a place to live in Christchurch.

Ōtautahi Community Trust’s Gowerton Place project will deliver 37 new, high-rated homes by early next year. They are being built by Christchurch company Consortium Construction.

The new homes replace 30 tired community housing units that were badly damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes. Those units welcomed their first tenants in 1960.

The site has been cleared and levelled and Consortium Construction this week moved into the construction phase of the project.

ŌCHT commercial and development manager Ed Leeson says the homes they’ll build are designed to achieve at least a New Zealand Green Building Council Homestar 6 rating.

That means the tenants they’ll welcome in early 2022 can be assured their new homes will be warm and efficient to run. Their design will also surpass the Building Code.

A backdoor view of some of the units ŌCHT will deliver at Gowerton Place.

The 37-home build is made up of 34 one-bedroom units, and one each of 2-bed, 3-bed and 4-bed units. They’ll be built as six two-storey blocks.

The project design emphasises shared green spaces and open links to the community, Mr Leeson says.

Gardens, lawns, courtyards and paths are part of a total landscaped area of 3378 square metres. That’s more than twice the area of the overall building footprint.

The homes will also be built to a lower profile than the maximum permitted in the District Plan, Mr Leeson says.

The development replaces a complex previously owned by the Christchurch City Council.

The land was transferred to ŌCHT as part of the 2014 Housing Accord Agreement, between council and the Government, to capitalise the Trust.

The complex will be owned and managed by ŌCHT.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development supports the development and the Trust to provide these homes to government for the next 25 years.

Future tenants will come from the Ministry of Social Development’s Housing Register.

More than 1500 people on the register said they needed accommodation in Christchurch in the December quarter.

The new development begins as ŌCHT prepares to open the last two stages of a three stage, 90-home development replacing what used to be called Brougham Village.

Homes beside Karoro and Hoiho lanes will welcome their first tenants from April and into May.

Korimako Lane, in the same development, got its first tenants in January.

New homes were also built and opened last year at nearby Hastings St East, and at Charles St (Waltham), Reg Stillwell Place (New Brighton) and Tiwaiwaka Lane (St Martins).

Another 33 new homes will also be built this year at Coles Place, St Albans.