Rolleston housing land for sale could see new neighbourhood built after retirement village plan dropped

Wednesday, 3 June 2026

Land put up for sale by Ryman Healthcare on East Maddisons and Goulds roads in Rolleston.

Ryman Healthcare has put the 9.5-hectare site of a cancelled retirement village development in Rolleston on the market as it pushes on with a programme of property sales.

The company bought the land in 2022 and received resource consent for the $205 million project before pulling the plug.

The property is inside the Faringdon subdivision on East Maddisons and Goulds roads, on the southern side of the town.

Construction of a retirement village on the land was due to have started in 2024.

It is zoned for medium-density residential use. It could be subdivided for several hundred new houses, or bought by another retirement village operator.

The Rolleston retirement village was to have have housed 280 residents with individual units, a rest home, and dementia and hospital facilities. Construction and sales were to have begun by 2024.

The company confirmed in February the property was among three it was sizing up for potential sale as part of a trans-Tasman sell-off of assets aimed at raising $200m to help reset the company’s balance sheet.

Fast-growing Rolleston has doubled its population in a decade.

A spokesman for Ryman said after undertaking a review of its landbank, the company has now identified the sites with the strongest potential for future development and sale. These include Rolleston.

The property is being advertised for sale with expressions of interest sought by a July 2 deadline. It has a $9m rating valuation with Selwyn District Council.

Cameron Darby, director of capital markets at CBRE, which is marketing the land, said the sale is a chance for a residential developer to “secure a land holding of significant scale in a high-growth district”.

Ryman Healthcare has closed its Margaret Stoddart Retirement Village in Riccarton, Christchurch.

“The site’s substantial size also offers the potential to create a large-scale master planned neighbourhood,” he said.

Other large land sales in Rolleston include a block being sold by developer the Carter Group adjacent to the company’s Westhaven subdivision. The land for sale is big enough for 1000 new homes.

Rolleston’s residential population has doubled in the past decade and is now about 34,000.

Ryman’s Rolleston land for sale, pictured before new housing was built around it.

Ryman is also proceeding with sales at the other two Christchurch sites it was assessing – Margaret Stoddart Village in Riccarton and Woodcote Village in Hornby, which both closed last year. The closures affected about 80 residents who were offered a transfer to a newer complex.

The company recently sold two blocks of central Christchurch land on Park Tce opposite Hagley Park to housing developer Wolfbrook for $42m. That sale followed Ryman cancelling its consented $240m retirement village plan for the land.

Wolfbrook plans to put an apartment tower, townhouses and free-standing homes across the two Park Tce sites.

The only new Ryman development still going ahead in Greater Christchurch is the Richard Hadlee Village which is under construction in Belfast.

The company has also sold the site of a cancelled development in Karori and in Auckland, together with two sites in Victoria, Australia.

Ryman is a Christchurch-based public company with about 50 retirement villages across New Zealand and Australia, including seven in Canterbury.

In its annual financial result released last week, the company reported a $171m financial loss after tax, a significant improvement after a loss of $513m the previous year.