A significant slice of undeveloped land at the south-eastern edge of Timaru could soon accommodate up to 150 houses after an application to subdivide it was given the go-ahead by the council.

Landowner Terry O’Neill has been trying to get consent to subdivide a large block of land, at Watlington, for almost 15 years.

About 3.5 hectares was rezoned from rural to residential, with O’Neill developing 13 sections on the south side in 2007.

Since then, he has been trying to get the remaining 5.78 ha rezoned to residential. Last week, the Timaru District Council granted a subdivision consent, allowing the land to be subdivided into four allotments, of which three will be amalgamated to form the subdivision.

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Despite the long wait, the former earthmoving and drainage contractor said he was never tempted to walk away from his plans.

The mainly flat land, which is located along Coonoor Road and borders Timaru Christian School on one side, is likely to accommodate close to 150 houses.

O’Neill said there’s some uncertainty around numbers as he waits for clarity on upcoming changes to building directives such as right of way sizes.

“That’ll make a huge difference over a big subdivision having smaller right of ways and so forth.

“Up near 150 [sections] maybe, these are vague numbers until we get plans finished”, O’Neill said.

O’Neill said there’s a lot of demand for smaller sections in the town – something they planned to address.

“There’s never really been any available in Timaru up until now.

“We will have probably the majority as smaller sections – we’ll leave some at 600 or 700 sq metres, but some of them will be between 350 to 500 square metres.

“We‘ll have a few caveats on what they can and can’t build, we want it to be a nice tidy subdivision.”

O’Neill is confident work will move swiftly from now on in.

“It doesn’t take long to develop because a lot of the services are already in, we just have to extend the road and put the laterals in and tar seal.”

He estimated it would take a maximum of three months to get the land ready for sale.

“It could be less, it could be more, but once we get sorted with the council, we should be good to go.”

He said he plans to release the sections in small batches to manage demand.

“When they sell, or most of them have sold, we’ll move onto the next one. So we’re just quietly chugging along as the market dictates.”

O’Neill said his grandson, Johnny O’Neill, has joined the project.

“He’s well schooled up, he knows how it all works.”

The younger O’Neill is working on two other subdivisions, one in Wānaka and one in Ranfurly, O’Neill said.

“That’s a huge difference for us because I’m getting old now, and we need a young person to help run it.

“He’ll eventually take over the running of the whole thing, but at this stage he’ll be consulting with us.”

PGG Wrightson real estate agent Michael Molloy

said it’s unprecedented for such a large block of land to be opened up in Timaru.

“It’s good land, it will have a great outlook, and as long as the integrity of the development is kept throughout the process.”

Molloy, who is handling sales of the sections, is not concerned rising interest rates and building costs will dent the project.

“It certainly would have been a lot more beneficial to the local market to have this available a couple of years ago, that would have made it a lot more affordable for people,” Molloy said.

“As much as we’ll lose some of our market, we hopefully won’t lose too much, and by the time they trade out of their city sections they should have enough to do what they want to do.”

He said the council had previously deemed 26 medium density sections a year appropriate for Timaru.

“Really, in Timaru, we need the high density developments, we need the retired living size packages as well as the first home buyer – but affordable.

“The change of regulations on medium density, allowing you to go down to 350sqm, allowed us to kill two birds with one stone.”

But Molloy said other changes, such as new requirements for double or triple glazing for new builds, makes it a lot more expensive to build.

“We’re going to have to hope there’s a little more stimulation given to the first home buyer market by the Government to keep the economy going with new builds.

He said it will be difficult to get a home under $550,000 to first home buyers to qualify for their subsidies, but he’s hopeful the Government will raise price caps, given the increase in costs.

“We do have a shortage of retired living space, so hopefully we’ll cater to that market as well, hopefully around the $600 – $650,000 bracket.”

He said the subdivision will have caveats on things such as allowable materials.

“Houses will have to have three textures in the front, but no more than 60% of one texture.”

There’ll be no wooden fences or front fences allowed, to “protect the look of the subdivision”.