First home owners in Cromwell will be given first dibs for the next round of sections in the Gair Avenue subdivision.

More affordable options such as semi-detached and terraced housing on smaller building footprints would help fill a much needed gap in the housing market.

Cromwell Community Board Chair Anna Harrison said the board was really keen to lead the way in providing a range of housing types, “while taking care to meet our community expectations to ensure we create a liveable community with greenways and open spaces.”

She said it was exciting to see sections coming onto the market as they explored the options for bringing the plan to life.

The Central Otago District Council (CODC) was looking at selling the balance of the land to a developer for a comprehensive housing project, as it explored all available options to delivery housing solutions.

Those included investigating the potential for group homes companies and other alternative housing models such as Offsite Manufacturing (OSM) that could contribute to meeting the community’s needs.

Nine sections would be up for sale in Stage 1, initially for a limited timeframe, to fulfil the Cromwell Masterplan objectives to deliver a range of housing types. 

Bulk earthworks began in March and were expected to be completed in mid-June, with civil infrastructure scheduled to begin during May and finished around October 2025.

CODC property and facilities manager Garreth Robinson said this was good time to be looking at development options.

“It’s a good feeling to be at this point, that work is underway and that eventually there will be about 110 new houses in all, to cater for the projected growth in Cromwell.”

In 2022, the community board approved the five-stage approach for developing the remaining block of council-owned land, and a year later approved $2,093,410 to fund development of stage 1A and 1B - the remainder of the 5.2-hectare block was ready for the development of the next four stages.