Living in The Wood: rents, schools, census and property titles
The 1,698 live property titles in The Wood, Nelson City are mostly freehold (72%), as recorded by LINZ on 30 September 2026. Cross-lease titles number 134 (7.9%), slightly below the national share of 8.7%.
- Cross-lease titles
- 134
- Share of live titles
- 7.9%
- Live titles in total
- 1,698
- Nelson City share
- 5.3%
- New Zealand share
- 8.7%
- Rank by share in Nelson City
- 9 of 15
- Rank by share in New Zealand
- joint 387 of 644
The Wood at a glance
Where The Wood differs most from suburbs across New Zealand: titles first issued since 2020 (lower than 96% of NZ suburbs); median age (higher than 91% of NZ suburbs).
Higher or lower is not better or worse. Sources and limits
Start here
What the data tells you
Recorded facts
- The Wood is listed under Nelson City.
- 1,698 live titles are recorded here, including 134 cross-lease titles (7.9%).
- The page includes 2023 Census context for the statistical area that represents this suburb.
- The page includes MBIE new-tenancy rent figures for April–June 2026.
Contextual observations
- Cross-lease titles make up 7.9% of the recorded title mix. That describes the suburb, not any particular home.
- Unit titles account for 5.6% of recorded titles, so title structure can vary within the suburb.
- Coast distance is a suburb-level map measure, not a flood or hazard assessment.
Questions worth investigating
- For any cross-lease property you consider, do the current title, flats plan and lease match what is built today?
- What do the LIM, council property file and a suitable inspection add for the specific address?
No data held for this suburb
- Mapped public-transport context is not available for this suburb.
Title mix in The Wood
| Title type | Live titles | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Freehold | 1,227 | 72.3% |
| Cross lease | 134 | 7.9% |
| Unit title | 95 | 5.6% |
| Leasehold | 237 | 14.0% |
| Other record types | 5 | 0.3% |
| Total | 1,698 | 100% |
Counts are titles, not homes; the register can lag conversions, so check the certificate of title. Sources and limits
How The Wood compares
Nationally, 8.7% of live titles are cross-lease; The Wood is slightly lower than the national share (8.7%).
Across Nelson City as a whole, the share is 5.3%; The Wood is higher than the overall Nelson City share (5.3%).
How cross-leases in The Wood are set up
More schemes have four or more flats on one section (29%, against 11% nationally), up to 13.
Separate exclusive-use areas are less common (2% of schemes, against 5% nationally).
Three-flat schemes are more common here (22%, against 12% nationally).
| Scheme structure | The Wood | Nelson City | New Zealand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross-lease schemes (shared sections) | 51 | 795 | 87,651 |
| Two-flat schemes | 47.1% | 69.4% | 76.2% |
| Three-flat schemes | 21.6% | 15.3% | 12.2% |
| Four or more flats | 29.4% | 14.6% | 11.4% |
| Typical section size (from the titles, not a survey) | 809 m² | 840 m² | 908 m² |
| Typical land per flat | 308 m² | 381 m² | 408 m² |
| Schemes with a garage written into a lease | 15.7% | 27.0% | 28.4% |
| Schemes with a carport in a lease | 9.8% | 8.9% | 13.3% |
| Schemes with a separate exclusive-use area | 2.0% | 1.9% | 4.5% |
| Schemes referring to more than one flats plan (usually redrawn; not by itself a problem) | 25.5% | 24.4% | 35.6% |
| Median year of earliest current title | 1990 | 1991 | 1988 |
| Two-flat schemes on 700 m² or more | 7 | 379 | 54,978 |
Unit titles and leasehold in The Wood
Unit titles are 6% of The Wood's titles, well above Nelson City (3%) and below New Zealand (8%). They belong to 4 developments, each run by a body corporate; half have 21 units or fewer.
The unit-title share is joint 2nd highest of 15 in Nelson City.
237 titles (14.0%) are leasehold, well above the national share (1.2%).
1 of them have a stated term that has ended or has under 10 years to run, which is worth reading closely in the lease.
Stated lease terms, as at 30 September 2026:
| Stated lease term | Titles |
|---|---|
| Stated term has ended | 0 |
| Under 10 years left | 1 |
| 10 to 50 years left | 1 |
| More than 50 years left | 231 |
| Term mentions renewal (including perpetually renewable) | 2 |
| Term not stated or not readable | 2 |
New titles in The Wood since 2020
37 of The Wood's current titles (2%) were first issued since 2020, well below Nelson City's suburbs with new-title figures taken together (8%) and well below New Zealand (12%).
That rate is joint lowest of 13 in Nelson City.
| Title type | Since 2020 | Since 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Freehold | 32 | 19 |
| Unit title | 1 | 1 |
| Cross-lease | 3 | 2 |
| Leasehold | 1 | 1 |
| Other | 0 | 0 |
New titles include cross-leases converted to freehold and titles re-issued; they are not a count of new homes. Sources and limits
The lie of the land in The Wood
The typical building in The Wood stands on ground sloping 0.9° (read on an 8 m grid, so short steep banks may be understated), the flattest of 15 in Nelson City.
Nearly all of its 1,754 measured buildings (95%) stand on ground under 5°.
Much of the land is low-lying: the median elevation is 4 m, and parts are below sea level.
Little of the sloping land faces north: 14%, where about a quarter would if slopes faced every way equally.
Slope is not a measure of ground stability. Sources and limits
Distance to the coast from The Wood
5% of The Wood's titles are within 200 m of the sea or harbour edge, 42% within 500 m and 92% within 1 km. The typical title is 550 m away.
Measured in a straight line from the centre of each title's land to the coastline on LINZ's 1:50k topographic map, which follows harbours and estuaries as well as the open coast; lakes and rivers are not included. Distance says nothing about beach access, views or exposure to coastal hazards; council hazard maps and the LIM describe those.
Who lives around The Wood: 2023 Census
About 95% of The Wood's titles are in the census area The Wood (a Stats NZ statistical area), so these figures describe that area, not The Wood exactly.
More households have no car in The Wood than across Nelson City: 12.3% against 5.6%.
More workers walk or cycle to work in The Wood than across Nelson City: 29.7% against 14.6%.
More people live alone in The Wood than across Nelson City: 40.7% against 27.1%.
| Measure | The Wood | Nelson City whole council |
|---|---|---|
| Usual residents | 3,018 | 52,584 |
| Change since 2018 | +3.8% | +3.3% |
| Change since 2013 | +6.5% | +13.2% |
| Median age | 49.5 | 44 |
| Households | 1,341 | 20,577 |
| Own or part-own their home (including family trusts) | 62.9% | 71.2% |
| Not owned and not in a family trust (mostly renting) | 36.9% | 28.8% |
| Median household income | $63,500 | $81,800 |
| Median weekly rent, renting households | $410 | $430 |
| Dwellings unoccupied on census night | 6.3% | 7.4% |
| Ages | ||
| Under 15 | 12.5% | 16.6% |
| 15 to 29 | 13.5% | 15.6% |
| 30 to 64 | 44.8% | 46.2% |
| 65 and over | 29.2% | 21.6% |
| Where people came from | ||
| Born overseas | 32.4% | 26.5% |
| Of those born overseas, arrived in the last 5 years | 30.8% | 22.9% |
| Lived elsewhere in New Zealand 5 years ago (of all residents, including children born since) | 45.7% | 43.0% |
| Lived overseas 5 years ago (of all residents) | 6.7% | 5.0% |
| Moved here in the last year (of all residents) | 23.3% | 18.2% |
| Work and study (people 15 and over) | ||
| Bachelor degree or higher | 30.3% | 26.8% |
| Employed full-time | 40.6% | 47.1% |
| Unemployed (share of everyone 15 and over, not the unemployment rate) | 2.3% | 2.2% |
| Managers and professionals (of those employed) | 45.0% | 42.2% |
| Median personal income | $35,700 | $38,800 |
| Getting to work (of those employed) | ||
| Work from home | 12.3% | 14.8% |
| Car, truck or van | 55.2% | 67.5% |
| Bus, train or ferry | 0.8% | 1.1% |
| Walk or cycle | 29.7% | 14.6% |
| Households and families | ||
| One-person households | 40.7% | 27.1% |
| Average people per household | 2 | 2.4 |
| Households with no motor vehicle | 12.3% | 5.6% |
| Crowded households (need one or more extra bedrooms) | 4.2% | 4.1% |
| Couples with children (of families) | 30.5% | 36.4% |
| Couples without children | 53.6% | 48.1% |
| One-parent families | 15.9% | 15.5% |
| Homes | ||
| Separate (stand-alone) houses | 66.1% | 78.4% |
| Average bedrooms | 2.6 | 2.9 |
| Heated with a heat pump | 79.2% | 74.4% |
| Damp, always or sometimes | 11.9% | 14.0% |
| Mould over A4 size, always or sometimes | 8.9% | 9.6% |
Rents around The Wood
New tenancies in The Wood in the April–June 2026 quarter had a median rent of $550 a week (up 1.9% on a year earlier). That is close to the typical suburb in Nelson City ($555), and slightly below the national median ($600).
| April–June 2026 | The Wood | New Zealand |
|---|---|---|
| Median weekly rent, new tenancies | $550 | $600 |
| Middle half of rents | $484–$595 | $490–$700 |
| Change in median on a year earlier | +1.9% | +0.2% |
| Bonds lodged in the quarter | 30 | 40,827 |
Schools and hospitals near The Wood
No school site lies inside The Wood's boundary; the nearest is Maitai School, 0.9 km away in a straight line.
- Nearest school: Maitai School (0.9 km)
- Nearest secondary school: Nelson College For Girls (1.7 km)
- Nearest public general hospital: Nelson Hospital (2.9 km)
Being near a school does not mean being in its zone: check its enrolment scheme. Sources and limits
Places of worship near The Wood
OpenStreetMap maps 2 places of worship inside The Wood (2 Christian).
Nearest mapped place of each tradition within 10 km:
- Christian: The Haven Seventh-Day Adventist Church, under 1 km away
- Muslim: Nelson Islamic Cultural Society (NICS), 1.3 km away
Listed as facilities for access; not an indicator of who lives here. Sources and limits
Other suburbs in Nelson City with many cross-leases
- Stoke: 474 cross-lease titles (6.3%)
- Tāhunanui: 257 cross-lease titles (12.4%)
- Nelson South: 204 cross-lease titles (8.4%)
- Toi Toi: 117 cross-lease titles (11.6%)
- Washington Valley: 100 cross-lease titles (11.9%)
- Richmond: 94 cross-lease titles (1.1%)
- Annesbrook: 76 cross-lease titles (11.4%)
- Bishopdale: 59 cross-lease titles (12.9%)
Suburbs like The Wood
The closest match on the measures on this site is Nelson South in Nelson City, nearest on commuting by public transport, cross-lease share, distance to the coast. Closeness is arithmetic, not a rating. Sources and limits
| Suburb | Council | Cross-lease share of titles | Median weekly rent, new tenancies | Median age | Closest on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nelson South | Nelson City | 8.4% | $613 | 44.2 | commuting by public transport, cross-lease share, distance to the coast |
| Opawa | Christchurch City | 13.0% | No data | 47.6 | elevation, population change, slope |
| Tāhunanui | Nelson City | 12.4% | $523 | 39.9 | elevation, distance to the coast, slope |
| Wakatu | Nelson City | 8.7% | $568 | 49.7 | schools, population change, median age |
| Blenheim | Marlborough District | 18.2% | $565 | 43.5 | elevation, damp homes, distance to a hospital |
Questions
What is the rent in The Wood?
New tenancies in the The Wood rent area had a median rent of $550 a week in the April–June 2026 quarter (MBIE bond data, all dwelling types). These are rents agreed for new tenancies, not asking rents. The middle half of those rents ran from $484 to $595.
What schools are in The Wood?
No school site lies inside The Wood's boundary. The nearest school is Maitai School (0.9 km in a straight line). Being near a school does not mean being in its zone.