Smaller lifestyle sections for sale in parts of North Canterbury could be the last of their kind to come up for grabs due to a district plan change.
The 4-hectare sections in western Waimakariri such as Oxford, Eyrewell, Cust, West Eyreton, Okuku and Glentui that are currently on the market were subdivided prior to an Environment Court decision in September 2021 which reset the minimum section size for lifestyle properties in the General Rural Zone to 20 hectares.
Waimakariri District Council introduced the rule in the west of the district to protect the district’s rural character and ensure there is enough productive farmland for future generations.
Areas such as Loburn and Ohoka that are closer to the settlements are zoned rural lifestyle and can still be subdivided into 4ha lots.
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Bayleys Rangiora salesperson Brook Yates says the 50 or so sections currently for sale are probably a result of the owners getting their subdivision applications in before the Environment Court ruling.
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Bayleys has four 4ha sections listed for sale on Steffens Road, Oxford that are priced by negotiation, and three 4ha sections on Barracks Road, Oxford with an asking price of $495,000 per lot.
But once all those 4ha sections in western Waimakariri are gone, landowners will no longer be able to subdivide them as small lots under the current district plans rules.
“I’m not saying these 50 are the last 50 that have ever been there, but west of Fernside there’s potentially not a lot more that will be able to do it.”
Yates says there are two sides to the coin because while it protects farmland and allows some farmers to expand their operations, it also stymies other farmers’ retirement plans to split up their blocks.
The general rural zone, shown in light green on the map, covers a large area of the western Waimakariri District. Photo / Waimakariri District Council
“For example, if a farmer had 40ha, under the current rules they can only create two 20ha blocks, whereas under the previous rules they would have got 10 4ha blocks.”
And while sections in the more populated lifestyle areas closer to Christchurch such as Ohoka, Fernside and Loburn can still be subdivided, Yates says there is also a limit of how many farm blocks within that area are still big enough to be carved up.
Property Brokers salesperson Maurice Newell says the new rule impacts roughly half the district and while there are a lot of 4ha sections already for sale in the new general rural zone, there are plenty more that have been consented and the titles haven’t been issued yet.
Newell says some of the sections seem to be taking longer to sell because banks appear to be favouring house and land packages over lending on just bare sections due to concerns around cost overruns and building delays.
He is selling several house and land packages in Waimakariri including a property at 480 Pesters Road, West Eyreton, and another at 225 Ashley Road, Cust.
House and land packages are also for sale on some of the newly created 4ha sections such as this one on Pesters Road in West Eyreton. Photo / Supplied
“Eventually there will be a shortage of them (4ha sections), it might be some time away and it will push up the 4ha block price relatively speaking. If a block is already 20ha it’s not really economic to farm it if it’s on its own – 20ha isn’t economic unless you are market gardening.”
Ray White Morris & Co principal Stuart Morris says there’s still plenty of 4ha sites available due to people applying for consent prior to the plan change becoming operative as they tried to capitalise on their land.
“If you want to move to the countryside there’s a reasonable amount of supply at the moment, but that may not be the case going forward,” he said.
“The stock will be more restricted in the 10-acre (4ha) lifestyle piece in the future, however there are still bands of land that fit that zoning that can be done."
However, Morris points out that there may be other options for people and when stock gets low developers may decide to create rural residential blocks of between 2000sqm and 4000sqm.
“In the future we might see a change, but then there may be district plan changes again as they rezone it.”
There is also potential for those smaller 4ha lifestyle blocks to be developed in neighbouring districts such as the Hurunui District, which does not have the same restrictions around carving up farmland.
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