Basically Christchurch’s heritage has gone, but that does not mean that the buildings cannot be rebuilt in the same style, but better to stand up to time and mother earth. Imagine New Christchurch, renamed as that, at every City block the glass in the newly rebuilt buildings will change to a different colour of the [...]

Questions & Answers regarding Floor and Foundation Design Standards for buildings in the Canterbury earthquake 

What are these Floor and Foundation Design Standards? - The Department of Building and Housing have produced some generic building foundation and floor designs that can be used for residential homes being built or repaired on liquefied, tilting, unsettled and/or damaged [...]

Heritage Replica Chimneys
We have all the seen the holes in roofs after a big shake and even sometimes after a particularly bad, strong wind. You want to keep your chimney looking original, but it will be repaired with “new” bricks. Well there is a Canterbury company called “Heritage Chimney Replacements” that may have the solution [...]

A lot of my colleagues did not have an open home last week and went off on a long break. We had open homes and confirmed that it was a good time to have them.
The people coming through were buyers that needed to find something quickly. As we were one of the few to have [...]

In November, though it was Spring, it felt that buyers were playing it cautious, and the only offers we were getting were almost insulting, but this week we have seen such a change. We have had nearly as many offers as we have listings. That’s not all! We are likely to get even more, and [...]

Housing Minister Phil Heatley has launched a new programme which will make it easier for first-time buyers and those on lower incomes to build or purchase their own homes. Gateway Housing Assistance allows purchasers to build or buy a property but defer payment on the land.
“It is important the Government provides opportunities for people to move [...]

Now that things in Christchurch are starting to settle down, it looks like investment properties will be in great demand for at least a year and even longer. A lot of houses were damaged, so people will want to stay in a rental until their property is repaired or completely rebuilt.
Our office had quite a [...]

I do not know if it is the weather getting even better here in Christchurch as we head towards winter or what, but last month we did not see much activity in real estate sales wise, but we did increase the number of houses we have on our books substantially. This month it has been [...]