Looking at data on housing affordability measures for Canterbury and its earthquake recovery experience, this paper discusses the factors contributing to Canterbury’s improved housing availability and affordability despite the significant housing destruction during the 2011 earthquake and identifies key takeaways for policy-makers.

The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes caused major upheaval to the people of the region. The second major quake killed 185 people, forced many from their homes, and closed Christchurch’s central business district. This paper examines the consequential effect on jobs and accumulated earnings for workers in Canterbury.

This article compares the proximate but not parallel trajectories of Canterbury Regional Council’s (ECan) and the Christchurch City Council’s changing authority to manage the urban and natural environment from 2010 to 2015. We ask why the trajectories are so far from parallel, and speculate as to why the central government interventions were so different. The...

The Quarterly Canterbury Job Matching Report for the March 2015 quarter was released today by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, providing employment demand and supply information on the Canterbury rebuild and wider recovery. Some key findings for this quarter are: Labour force participation is high and unemployment is low. Job vacancies in the...

The Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010 and 2011 presented the Government with unprecedented challenges, not least of which was to ensure consistency and connectedness across each of its agencies who had a role in the response. This paper examines particular instances where government agencies connected in responding to the earthquake's impact on the built environment...