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1057 days ago

First stage of big Halswell retirement village nears completion

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

Christchurch will get another retirement village when the first stage of Halswell’s $210 million Banbury Park opens in May.

The development, designed to resemble a subdivision with stand-alone houses built along streets, is going up on a 14-hectare site between Milns and Sparks roads.

It will have 191 houses, 42 apartments, a rest home with hospital and dementia care, and facilities including a pool and a restaurant. All buildings will be single or double storey.

The complex is being built by Qestral Corporation, a Christchurch company headed by Ryman Healthcare founder John Ryder, which develops upscale retirement villages.

Qestral bought the farmland for about $6.6m in 2019, most of it from Christchurch developer and investor the Carter Group, owned by Philip Carter.

Ryder said the first 12 homes finished would be followed by another 24, and completing the development would take five years.

The project has been expanded to cover an extra 2ha from when it was first announced, and construction costs have risen, Ryder said. The original budget was $160m.

The Banbury Park site is immediately south of the Meadowlands subdivision being built by Danne Mora Holdings, with 155 sections in six stages. It is just north of land owned by the Carter Group which is also earmarked for residential development.

Banbury Park’s houses will be from 116 square metres to 230sqm in size, while the apartments will be part of the main facilities building.

Banbury Park is being built in Halswell by Qestral Corporation.

As with other retirement villages, occupants will buy a right to occupy only, and will not own their homes.

Christchurch already has about 50 retirement villages, of which Burlington in Redwood and Alpine View in Marshland are both owned by Qestral.

Ryder said since establishing its first two complexes in the city, they had been made aware of demand for retirement homes in the southwestern suburbs.

“Halswell is a hugely busy area for construction and new housing – there’s been a huge amount of interest from people around the area,” he said.

The company also owns the Coastal View retirement village in Nelson and is developing others in Hamilton and Whangarei as part of a development programme costing more than $750m.

Other retirement villages planned for the Christchurch area include Ryman’s complexes in Park Tce in the central city and Main North Rd in Northwood, while fellow operator Summerset plans to build on land it has bought at South Belt in Rangiora, and Springs Rd in Prebbleton.

More messages from your neighbours
15 days ago

⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️

The Team from SPCA New Zealand

It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:

👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️

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C
7 days ago

Greed and townhouses.

Chris from Prebbleton

Any council that allows a new building permit without requiring at least one carpark (if not two) should be charged for pandering to developers and builders greed. A recent report indicating a lot of townhouses are on the market now because owners/occupiers are leaving/selling to move to places with carparks. And anybody with even the smallest degree of intelligence will be well aware of the worldwide hassles with charging EVs where there is/are nowhere to park in an evening while charging. This has been known about for years now. The cure for this is instead of building 6 townhouses you only build 4 or 5. So it boils down to greed and a total lack of planning on behalf of those meant to be doing this sort of stuff for us.

4 days ago

Apple customer service

Audrey from Templeton

My iPad recently had one of the automatic Apple upgrades but thereafter the recent (important) information on my ‘Notes’ icon had disappeared leaving only very early stuff. Does anyone know where I can find an Apple technician to try to sort it out?