What they said — Press releases, in full, from Prime Minister John Key and Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee.

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Prime Minister John Key today announced the next step in the government’s ongoing work to give people of greater Christchurch a clearer picture of what their future holds following a series of major earthquakes and aftershocks in the region.

Mr Key and Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee today released a map of the areas of greater Christchurch where the land is unlikely to be able to be rebuilt on for a considerable period of time.

“Since September last year, the government has been working to provide certainty for residents, while recognising many people have their life savings tied up in their homes,” Mr Key said.

“Today we have released the most up-to-date information we have about the state of the land in greater Christchurch.”

Advice from geotechnical engineers has seen all greater Christchurch land divided into four residential zones – red, orange, green and white.

Residential red zones – which involve around 5000 properties – are where the land is unlikely to be able to be rebuilt on for a considerable period of time.

Homeowners in this zone face lengthy disruption that could go on for many years, Mr Key said.

For people who owned property with insurance in the residential red zones on 3 September 2010 there will be two options:

• the Crown makes an offer of purchase for the entire property at current rating value (less any built property insurance payments already made), and assumes all the insurance claims other than contents; or
• the Crown makes an offer of purchase for the land only, and homeowners can continue to deal with their own insurer about their homes.

“The varying degrees of damage to the houses and land in the residential red zone mean it will take more time to develop these offers.”

The reason current rating value is used to assess the property value is because this best reflects the value, and is the most up-to-date information available. Current rating valuations, which are what the Council’s rates are based on, date from 2007.

“We hope to be able to come back to residents in the red zone with an offer of purchase within the next eight weeks,” Mr Key said.

“Residents will then have nine months to consider the offer of purchase.

“In the meantime, if residents wish to leave their badly damaged homes in the red zone they should talk to their insurers about accessing any unused portion of their temporary accommodation allowances immediately.”

Mr Key said the size, scale and complexity of the issues the government has been dealing with following the earthquakes means it has taken some time to get information to residents.

“Each subsequent earthquake since 4 September has made an already large and complex challenge more difficult.

“To put this in context, Treasury has estimated the combined cost of the first two Canterbury earthquakes to be equivalent to about 8 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP.

“Damage from the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan was just over 2 per cent of Japan’s GDP, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 cost about 1 per cent of US GDP, and March’s Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster was an estimated 3-5 per cent of Japan’s GDP.

“This has been a major event and the government is committed to getting things right for the people of Canterbury. We’re moving as quickly as we can to give some certainty to those affected,” Mr Key said.

Based on conservative assumptions, Treasury has estimated the net costs to the government to purchase all of the around 5000 properties currently in the residential red zone to be between $485 million and $635 million.

The final costs are still to be determined. Factors that may alter the final costs include the take-up of the offer, government property valuations and proceeds from insurers.

The costs are expected to be met from the Government’s $5.5 billion Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Fund.

– Office of the Prime Minister 

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Latest Christchurch land information released

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the announcement today of zones of land damage in greater Christchurch is the most up-to-date information that can be provided.

“The government will continue to provide the public with timely and accurate information on the state of the land and what it means for residents,” Mr Brownlee said.

All greater Christchurch land has been mapped into four zones – red, orange, green and white.

RED ZONE

Land marked red is unlikely to be suitable for continued residential occupation for a prolonged period of time.

The criteria for defining areas as residential red zone are:

• There is significant and extensive area wide land damage;
• There is a high risk of further damage to land and buildings from low-levels of shaking; and
• The success of engineering solutions would be uncertain and uneconomic; and
• Any repair would be disruptive and protracted. 

“It is not feasible to rebuild on this land at the present time,” Mr Brownlee said.

“Such wide scale land remediation would take a considerable period of time, and the social dislocation of such massive works would see people out of their homes for at least three years, and in some cases more than five years.

“In some areas we’re talking about the need for up to three metres of compacted fill to bring the land up to compliant height, along with many kilometres of perimeter treatment.

“Repair in all the red areas would not only require raising the height of the land but also a complete replacement of essential infrastructure like sewer, water, electricity and roading.

“Full land repair in these areas may mean that every house would need to be removed, regardless of its degree of present building damage.

“The resulting ongoing social dislocation would have major impacts on schooling, transport and employment for whole communities.

“Giving people the ability to relocate on land where they can rebuild immediately is the best option we have,” Mr Brownlee said.

For people who owned property with insurance in the residential red zones on 3 September 2010 there will be two options:

• the Crown makes an offer of purchase for the entire property at current rating value (less any built property insurance payments already made), and assumes all the insurance claims other than contents; or
• the Crown makes an offer of purchase for the land only, and homeowners can continue to deal with their own insurer about their homes.

“The government hopes to be able to come back to residents in the red zone with an offer of purchase within the next eight weeks.

“Residents will then have nine months to consider the offer of purchase,” Mr Brownlee said

GREEN ZONE

“The majority of greater Christchurch properties – about 100,000 – have today been given a green light to go ahead with their repair and rebuilding of their homes,” Mr Brownlee said.

“Insurers have shown a willingness to work with the government and homeowners as we move forward with Canterbury’s recovery.

“Property owners in the green zone no longer have to wait for the results of any area-wide land assessment reports by EQC or their engineering consultants Tonkin & Taylor.

“There will be some isolated exceptions where geotechnical assessments will be required due to major land damage, but for the most part Christchurch can get on with rebuilding.

“Repair and rebuilding work should take into consideration the risk of ongoing aftershocks, so some finishing tasks such as brick and driveway concrete laying should be delayed until that risk decreases.”

ORANGE ZONE

The orange mapped areas are where engineers need to undertake further investigation. Some of the damage in these areas is a direct result of the magnitude 5.6 and 6.3 earthquakes which struck on 13 June, and has not yet been adequately assessed to provide residents with certainty.

“We’d have liked to have provided clarity for the hundreds of households in orange mapped areas, but we have listened and responded to the many people saying they want information now. This is the most up-to-date information we have.

“We will progressively announce the outcome of investigations in these orange areas over the coming weeks and months,” Mr Brownlee said.

There are about 10,000 properties in the residential orange zone.

WHITE ZONE

There are also some areas in white on the map, including the Port Hills and the central business district, which are still being mapped or are not residential land.

INFORMATION FOR RESIDENTS

From today residents will be able to visit the www.landcheck.org.nz website and enter their address to find out what zone their property has been mapped into, and download a fact sheet on what it means for them. Residents can also contact the government helpline on 0800 779 997 if they are unable to access the website or they want more information.

The government has commenced outbound calling to those people in the residential red zone to discuss the announcement with them and an information pack will be mailed out to those residents in the next few days.

This is the largest natural disaster we have ever faced in New Zealand. EQC has now received more than 360,000 claims for all the earthquakes since 4 September, one of the highest numbers ever handled by a single insurer in the world. The previous biggest event for EQC was the Gisborne earthquake in 2007 with 6224 claims.

There have been more than 7350 aftershocks since the 7.1 magnitude earthquake on 4 September, including 28 that have been magnitude 5.0 or greater.

The mapping released today does not include the Selwyn District Council area as the land in this district was not badly affected by the major aftershocks.

Most of the Selwyn area has been mapped as green. Any properties with land damage in the Selwyn District from the 4 September earthquake or subsequent aftershocks are being dealt with on an individual basis.

“The offers of purchase only relate to residential home owners with insurance in the red zone as they were our first priority. We will be considering uninsured homeowners and commercial property owners in the residential red zone over the coming weeks and will get information to them as quickly as possible,” Mr Brownlee said.

–  Office of the Prime Minister