34 | Ashburton: Trident Homes - Ashburton REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Quality, pricing key to success from page 32 The best in quality is a given with Trident Homes. “We can offer some pretty good pricing and still deliver that nice, high quality home,” he says. “We can do anything from small homes to nice, big, architecturally designed homes, and for us in Ashburton, we are mostly building innovative and comfortable family homes all around the region.” Ashburton is growing steadily and sections at new subdivisions are being snapped up quickly. The new Strowan Fields 380 section subdivision on the eastern end of town is being built in six stages, and before construction was even underway on stage one, the first four stages sold out, and so the fifth stage was rushed to market. A bit further afield in Methven, the 31ha Camrose Estates development is now fully sold, and marks part of Methven’s transformation from small mid Canterbury town into popular alpine village destination, along with the opening of New Zealand’s first solar-powered hot pool spa, Ōpuke Thermal Pools, in November last year. “Methven has had a large boom, that’s a town that has always struggled for accommodation for people in the winter, as it’s right at the foot of the Mt Hutt ski field,” Shaun says. Proud builders of Trident Homes in Mid Canterbury PLACEMAKERS ASHBURTON ARE PROUD TO BE SUPPORTING TRIDENT HOMES “Now it has the hot pools, it is becoming even more of a destination along the lines of Hanmer, it’s definitely taking off. ”As a group home builder, Trident Homes has pricing right at its fingertips and so can get the process moving really quickly. But it is facing the same construction industry issues of labour shortages and materials delays like everyone else. “ Some products are nearly impossible to get. When we’re signing contracts, we now have to allow for six months’ ordering time, and keeping on top of prices is now a weekly thing. If things improve with staffing and materials, it would mean some good growth in some New Zealand locations.” Major changes to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 (CCCFA), which came into force on 1 December 2021 have made banks less willing to lend, preventing home buying for a number of New Zealanders and slowing the construction sector. In a town like Ashburton, which has almost as much reliance on the construction sector as it does on agriculture, these changes can work to slow the whole town down.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=