Waimakariri Welcomes 12% of New Canterbury Residents – Stats

Statistics recently released from ChristchurchNZ show that in addition to the 12% who came to Waimakariri, 31% moved to the Selwyn District, 44% to Christchurch city and the remainder to Ashburton. The 11,000 newcomers included 3,000 domestic migrants. The remainder were from outside the country.

The majority of the international migrants moved to Christchurch and Ashburton, whilst Selwyn and Waimakariri captured most of the domestic migrants.

Stuart Morris of Ray White Morris & Co Real Estate in Rangiora confirms there has been a steady stream of interested buyers in Waimakariri from outside the Canterbury region in the past year.

“Wellington, Tauranga, even Nelson and Central Lakes are showing a lot of interest.”

When asked what he thinks attracts people to live in Waimakariri, Mr Morris says, “Our market offers better value [than other places]. There are good employment options available here too. Covid times has also forced employers to offer work from home or remote options to keep good people.

“We’re seeing people who want to upgrade their home, upgrade their lifestyle or retire. We can offer it all!”

The quality housing, employment options and lifestyle are three of the factors that feature in a campaign created by Enterprise North Canterbury (ENC) to attract skilled workers to move to North Canterbury.

The Move On Up campaign features a website – www.northcanterbury.co.nz – which includes videos and stories of New Zealanders and international residents who have chosen to move to North Canterbury to live and work.

“The Move On Up campaign is designed to continue to attract people to move to North Canterbury in order to ‘move on up’ in their work and their life,” explains ENC Chief Executive Heather Warwick.

“The stories and videos we have produced for this campaign highlight the many reasons why people are keen to move to, or move back to, both the Waimakariri and Hurunui Districts here in North Canterbury. The stories are very inspiring and showcase the riches of living in our beautiful region.”

“We hope that Move On Up will play a part in attracting more new residents here, to contribute to our local community, and bolster our local economy.”