Christchurch City Council to provide a rebate for social housing development costs

Photo Kirk Hargreaves/Stuff

Registered community housing providers in Christchurch will now be able to access a $1.5m scheme for development contribution rebates after the council passed this policy on 20 December.

Key points are:

Type of development:A social and/or affordable rental residential development that is required to pay development contributions is defined as: Not-for-profit housing programmes delivered by community housing providers, to help low income households and other disadvantaged groups to access appropriate housing. This can be of a supported nature such as emergency housing, or of a more general nature where low income in relation to housing costs may be the main issue.

Type of developer: A community housing provider that is either registered as such a provider with the Community Housing Regulatory Authority, or is a registered charitable trust, AND has as one of its objects the provision of social and/or affordable rental housing.

More information is available on the Council’s website.

Comcare Trust chief executive Kay Fletcher told Stuff News in December that the trust had built 60 new units for single people over the past three years and had to pay the Christchurch City Council $500,000 in development contributions.

“It adds quite significant costs to a small organisation,” she told the council’s social, community development and housing committee.