Suburbs in Nelson City: rents, census and property titles

LINZ recorded 34,587 live titles in Nelson City on 30 September 2026: 83% freehold, then leasehold at 8.7%. Its 1,838 cross-lease titles (5.3%) are well below the national share of 8.7%.

Nelson City cross-lease titles

Cross-lease titles: 1,838
Share of live titles: 5.3%
Live titles in total: 34,587
New Zealand share: 8.7%
Suburbs with 30+ cross-lease titles: 15

2026-09-30 https://data.linz.govt.nz/layer/50804-nz-property-titles/

Title mix in Nelson City

Title type	Live titles	Share
Freehold	28,568	82.6%
Cross lease	1,838	5.3%
Unit title	1,019	2.9%
Leasehold	3,017	8.7%
Other record types	145	0.4%
Total	34,587	100%

Counts are titles, not homes. Sources and limits

How cross-leases in Nelson City are set up

Separate exclusive-use areas are less common (2% of schemes, against 5% nationally).

Fewer schemes refer to more than one flats plan (24%, against 36% nationally), usually because a plan was redrawn.

Carports appear in fewer leases (9% of schemes, against 13% nationally).

Scheme structure	Nelson City	New Zealand
Cross-lease schemes (shared sections)	795	87,651
Two-flat schemes	69.4%	76.2%
Three-flat schemes	15.3%	12.2%
Four or more flats	14.6%	11.4%
Typical section size (from the titles, not a survey)	840 m²	908 m²
Typical land per flat	381 m²	408 m²
Schemes with a garage written into a lease	27.0%	28.4%
Schemes with a carport in a lease	8.9%	13.3%
Schemes with a separate exclusive-use area	1.9%	4.5%
Schemes referring to more than one flats plan (usually redrawn; not by itself a problem)	24.4%	35.6%
Median year of earliest current title	1991	1988
Two-flat schemes on 700 m² or more	379	54,978

Sources and limits

Among suburbs with at least 300 live and 30 cross-lease titles, the highest cross-lease shares in Nelson City are in Bishopdale (12.9%), Tāhunanui (12.4%), Washington Valley (11.9%), Toi Toi (11.6%), Annesbrook (11.4%).

Suburbs in Nelson City by cross-lease share

Suburb	Cross-lease titles	Live titles	Share
Bishopdale	59	457	12.9%
Tāhunanui	257	2,076	12.4%
Washington Valley	100	843	11.9%
Toi Toi	117	1,006	11.6%
Annesbrook	76	664	11.4%
Wakatu	54	623	8.7%
Nelson South	204	2,438	8.4%
Maitai	39	482	8.1%
The Wood	134	1,698	7.9%
Stoke	474	7,537	6.3%
Enner Glynn	40	843	4.7%
The Brook	36	862	4.2%
Atawhai	38	1,513	2.5%
Nelson	40	1,710	2.3%
Richmond	94	8,188	1.1%

Richmond and Aniseed Valley straddle another council; LINZ lists Nelson City first, so their titles are counted here.

Nelson City at a glance

8% of titles in Nelson City's suburbs were first issued since 2020, well below New Zealand (12%). 41% of titles are within 1 km of the sea or harbour edge. The wider district is about as wet as the national average for homes (990 mm of rain a year, against 1,000 mm) and cooler than it (10.2°C, against 13.5°C), on NASA POWER's ~50 km grid.

A dash means the figure is not available for that suburb.
Suburb	Cross-lease share of titles	Median weekly rent, new tenancies	Titles first issued since 2020	Median age	Homes with a heat pump	Median slope under buildings	Typical distance to the coast
Bishopdale	12.9%	$340	16.8%	39.7	75.4%	5.8°	2.5 km
Tāhunanui	12.4%	$523	2.8%	39.9	72.6%	1°	0.5 km
Washington Valley	11.9%	$560	No data	35.2	69.7%	13.7°	0.7 km
Toi Toi	11.6%	No data	2.8%	36.2	64.7%	9.7°	1.1 km
Annesbrook	11.4%	No data	2.7%	39.9	No data	1.6°	1.6 km
Wakatu	8.7%	$568	1.9%	49.7	76.0%	4.6°	1.7 km
Nelson South	8.4%	$613	4.1%	44.2	72.4%	4.7°	1.8 km
Maitai	8.1%	$550	4.6%	49.9	69.3%	2.1°	1.8 km
The Wood	7.9%	$550	2.2%	49.5	79.2%	0.9°	0.6 km
Stoke	6.3%	$650	8.1%	43	82.7%	1.4°	1.2 km
Enner Glynn	4.7%	$590	No data	42.1	72.7%	9.2°	2.5 km
The Brook	4.2%	$500	2.6%	39.7	65.1%	2.1°	2.6 km
Atawhai	2.5%	$610	10.8%	51.1	75.1%	8.4°	0.3 km
Nelson	2.3%	$450	8.5%	40.4	74.0%	1.6°	1.2 km
Richmond	1.1%	No data	11.4%	42.1	75.4%	1.2°	1.6 km

Sources and limits

Compare suburbs

New titles by year in Nelson City

2025 brought 378 titles still live, about the same as the 5-year average before it (372), against a peak of 440 in 2022; 32% were unit titles.

Year issued	All new titles	Freehold	Unit titles	Cross-lease	Leasehold	Other
2020	435	403	17	3	8	4
2021	413	350	51	1	6	5
2022	440	401	28	0	7	4
2023	303	274	20	3	3	3
2024	267	198	58	1	9	1
2025	378	236	120	10	8	4
2026 (Jan–Sep)	185	163	11	0	11	0

Sources and limits

Cross-lease titles in Nelson City, by suburb

Unit titles in Nelson City, by suburb

Leasehold titles in Nelson City, by suburb

Nelson City at the 2023 Census

Measure	Nelson City 2023 Census
Usual residents	52,584
Change since 2018	+3.3%
Change since 2013	+13.2%
Median age	44
Households	20,577
Own or part-own their home (including family trusts)	71.2%
Not owned and not in a family trust (mostly renting)	28.8%
Median household income	$81,800
Median weekly rent, renting households	$430
Dwellings unoccupied on census night	7.4%
Ages
Under 15	16.6%
15 to 29	15.6%
30 to 64	46.2%
65 and over	21.6%
Where people came from
Born overseas	26.5%
Of those born overseas, arrived in the last 5 years	22.9%
Lived elsewhere in New Zealand 5 years ago (of all residents, including children born since)	43.0%
Lived overseas 5 years ago (of all residents)	5.0%
Moved here in the last year (of all residents)	18.2%
Work and study (people 15 and over)
Bachelor degree or higher	26.8%
Employed full-time	47.1%
Unemployed (share of everyone 15 and over, not the unemployment rate)	2.2%
Managers and professionals (of those employed)	42.2%
Median personal income	$38,800
Getting to work (of those employed)
Work from home	14.8%
Car, truck or van	67.5%
Bus, train or ferry	1.1%
Walk or cycle	14.6%
Households and families
One-person households	27.1%
Average people per household	2.4
Households with no motor vehicle	5.6%
Crowded households (need one or more extra bedrooms)	4.1%
Couples with children (of families)	36.4%
Couples without children	48.1%
One-parent families	15.5%
Homes
Separate (stand-alone) houses	78.4%
Average bedrooms	2.9
Heated with a heat pump	74.4%
Damp, always or sometimes	14.0%
Mould over A4 size, always or sometimes	9.6%

Sources and limits