Student housing project starts at Christchurch’s derelict Antonio Hall

Tuesday, 9 June 2026

Work has begun to redevelop Christchurch’s derelict Antonio Hall buildings as a major student accommodation centre.

Local funds management company Mainland Capital last year announced its plans for the 1.5-hectare Riccarton Rd property, after it had sat deteriorating for many years.

The new complex will have 450 student beds. It is less than 1km from Canterbury University.

An artist’s impression of part of the new student complex.

Mainland Capital bought the property for $20 milllion earlier this year from Wellstar, a company owned by the overseas-based Chiu family. The sale will be settled later this month.

The company describes the new development as having “a mews-typology design found internationally, and central courtyards”.

Heavy machinery is on the site now, making site preparations.

Safety warning notices on the building in 2025.

Construction could take two years.

The brick mansion was built more than a century ago as a private home. Since falling vacant in recent years it has been the site of three major fires, countless break-ins and many neighbourhood complaints.

Mainland Capital executive director Ben Bridge said the project aims to help plug a gap in the availability of accommodation for students past their first year of study.

Ben Bridge, of Mainland Capital, is turning the old Antonio Hall property into student accommodation.

This year the university enrolled a record 27,000 students.

“Student accommodation is one of the fastest-growing investment sectors globally,” Bridge said.

Sam Yau, of Wellstar, at the property 20 years ago when the company planned to transform it into a motel, hotel and venue complex.

“Christchurch has seen very little institutional development in this space despite strong student growth, so opportunities of this scale and proximity to campus are exceptionally rare.”

Chris Scott, head of finance and acquisitions for Mainland Capital, said the university’s enrolment growth has “outstripped the university’s ability to meet accommodation demand within its own halls of residence, pushing an increasing number of students into a private rental market that is ill-suited to their needs”.

Part of the building after a fire in 2021.

Scott said the Antonio Hall site is the only one close enough, large enough, and with the appropriate zoning for what the company wanted to build.

Mainland Capital is also repairing and upgrading the old Noahs/Rydges hotel in the central city, which will reopen as a luxury Sheraton hotel.

Last year the city council removed its heritage protection over Antonio Hall, also known as Antonio House, which was badly damaged in the earthquakes.

It had been in the hands of Wellstar Co for more than 30 years.

Antonio Hall was built between 1904 and 1909 as a private home for a seed merchant who named it Baronscourt.

It originally had 279 rooms and was once described as “one of the finest” buildings in the city.

The property has provided student accommodation before. After being used by the Catholic Church as the Holy Name Seminary from the 1940s to the 1980s, it operated as student hostel Campion Hall.

It was then named Antonio Hall after being sold as a boarding house and reception venue, before being sold to Wellstar in 1993.

The property has been unoccupied, except for a growing cat population, since the 2011 earthquakes.