Fletcher Living targets spring/summer start for $40m 78-home Sydenham project

Tuesday, 30 June 2026

Building company Fletcher Living hopes to start work on a new $40 million housing development in Sydenham later this year.

Seventy-eight two and three bedroom homes will be built on part of the Milton St site formerly used as a works depot by Christchurch City Council-owned maintenance firm Citycare.

Fletcher Living bought the 1.4-hectare block in May last year for $6.64m from the council’s economic development agency ChristchurchNZ, but the site has since been untouched.

A spokesperson for Fletcher Living this week saidthe developer was working through the consenting process and hoped to start work in spring or summer this year.

The development will include at least 11 “affordable” homes, which will be priced at or below an agreed price cap. The cap was $610,000 when the agreement was signed, but can be adjusted relative to movement in the Real Estate Institute’s median house price, Fletcher Living said.

Each home will have a car park and some also a garage.

Uncertainty still surrounds the development of another part of the former depot land, fronting Milton St.

This section of land was bought by National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) in 2022 with the intention of building a new research centre for 120 staff, collaborators, students and visiting scientists.

Its existing facility in Riccarton was approaching the end of its useful life.

Resource consent was approved for the Niwa development in November 2022, and a building consent was issued in January this year, but there is still no sign of the project going ahead on the land. It is instead being used as a storage area for nearby infrastructure works.

Niwa declined to answer any questions about the development on Monday, beyond a spokesperson saying there was no update on the project.

Niwa has not commented publicly on the project since November 2022, when it said it was still to be approved by the Government.

Meanwhile, the resource consent for the Fletcher housing development is yet to be approved.

Updated development plans were submitted to the council last week, after design tweaks were made following feedback from council staff.

Consent documents show the soil under the site is contaminated with the likes of arsenic, lead and a small level of asbestos.

Much of the contaminated soil will be removed and disposed of at an appropriate site, the documents said.

Any remaining contaminated material would be covered by buildings, roading or other hard surfaces.