Selwyn District has been hitting the headlines for its building boom, and just down the road tradies are being kept busy in Ashburton too.
The Ashburton District Council figures show 218 new house consents to the end of March in 2025/26, compared to 139 in the same period in the previous year.
Community and open spaces general manager Toni Durham said there were 71 house consents from January to March this year, compared to 41 in the same period in 2025.
Around 11 per cent of the new housing consents in the district were in Methven.
Durham said the increase is a mixture of new subdivisions becoming available and filling up existing ones and the council has been monitoring the growth.
“Our district has been growing since the 1990s. The population grew 10 per cent between 2018 and 2023, and we are currently updating our growth assumptions from medium to medium high.
“Council has planned for this growth through its long-term and annual plans, and water services delivery plan.
“More people means more ratepayers to cover costs, and we also collect development contributions from new home builders that help pay for growth to infrastructure – like our drinking water and wastewater networks.”
Durham said council strongly believed growth should pay for growth and which was a key driver behind its review of the development contributions policy.
“The changes we’re proposing include increasing development contributions to more accurately reflect the actual cost of growth, introducing a new contribution for district roading and collecting contributions earlier during the subdivision stage.
“We believe these will help ensure that growth pays its fair share without burdening existing ratepayers.”
Consultation on the draft development and financial contributions policy closes on May 10.
Meanwhile back up the road, Selwyn’s growth is on a different scale.
The district has had 1540 new home consents so far in 2024/25 – including 571 from January to March.
Selwyn had 1422 new homes consented in 2024/2025.
The growth shows no signs of slowing down, with several new subdivisions or new stages of existing subdivisions driving growth.
Major developments include a 3500-home planned subdivision in southwest Rolleston by the Carter Group and a 160ha development, around 2500 homes, on the northwest by Urban Estates.
The Carter Group has Earlsbrook, at Lincoln, a multi-stage development spanning 170 hectares of 2100 residential sections in total. Birchs Village, at Prebbleton is seeking to develop around 530 residential allotments and a commercial precinct.
Hughes Developments is planning Bangor Village, an up to 800-home subdivision at Darfield. If approved, could increase its population by 50 per cent.
