Source: Radio New Zealand
A builder says there are many half-finished housing developments in Christchurch and Auckland. (File photo) RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
A builder says Christchurch is seeing an increasing amount of half-finished two-bedroom developments with less appetite in the market.
Carl Taylor, a builder and the head of Combined Building Supplies Co-operative, told Nine to Noon, it was a problem he was seeing for himself in Christchurch and was likely also the case in Auckland.
He said lots of builders had thought it was really easy to get into developments in recent years, but now many units, especially two-bedrooms, were sitting unsold.
In March alone, Taylor said 79 percent of all consents issued in Christchurch were for multi-unit developments.
“It’s pretty easy to notice when you’re driving round town you’ll see notices with five units available and eight in the whole development.
“They’re just not selling, so we’re starting to see effects in the market. It becomes a vicious cycle.”
Taylor said some two-bedroom townhouses were still selling, and there were lots of builders creating fantastic products, if they had a garage and a little bit of land they were still in demand, but many had no carparking or garage.
He said there was quite a lag from when consent was granted to when the building could actually be constructed.
In 2021 to 2022, Taylor said, a builder was able to go out and intensify and buy a piece of land and smack five or so units on it, but this was now changing.
At that time, the value in price had doubled almost overnight, Taylor said, making it an attractive option for builders, but now too many people had done that.
Taylor said when he looked at two-bedroom townhouses from January through to March, there had been over 512 – but when he looked at ones that didn’t have a garage there were only 56.
In March, Taylor said there were 331 consents for units.
As a result, Taylor said there were developments staying half-built where the builder had gone bust and it had to be put up for mortgagee action.
“We’re in that position where we’ve just overbuilt these things.”
He said there were 84 current listings online for two-bedroom townhouses in Christchurch.
In some cases, Taylor said people who had purchased a townhouse in 2021 or 2022, who had sold in 2025 or 2026, were getting about $100,000 less than they had paid.
There was an appetite for stand-alone, more traditional three-bedroom homes, Taylor said.
“I was speaking to an agent yesterday, he had 22 groups through just over a two-week period, but with units, they’d be lucky to get single digits in three weeks. So I believe people want to go back to that traditional housing.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/18/christchurch-townhouse-boom-seeing-half-finished-developments-across-city/