Suburbs in Selwyn District: rents, census and property titles
LINZ recorded 40,979 live titles in Selwyn District on 30 September 2026: 98% freehold, then unit title at 0.8%. Its 254 cross-lease titles (0.6%) are well below the national share of 8.7% (joint lowest of 54 in New Zealand, among councils with at least 100 cross-lease titles).
Selwyn District cross-lease titles
- Cross-lease titles
- 254
- Share of live titles
- 0.6%
- Live titles in total
- 40,979
- New Zealand share
- 8.7%
- Suburbs with 30+ cross-lease titles
- 4
Title mix in Selwyn District
| Title type | Live titles | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Freehold | 40,019 | 97.7% |
| Cross lease | 254 | 0.6% |
| Unit title | 315 | 0.8% |
| Leasehold | 80 | 0.2% |
| Other record types | 311 | 0.8% |
| Total | 40,979 | 100% |
Counts are titles, not homes. Sources and limits
How cross-leases in Selwyn District are set up
Carports appear in fewer leases (3% of schemes, against 13% nationally).
Fewer schemes have four or more flats on one section (4%, against 11% nationally).
Separate exclusive-use areas are less common (2% of schemes, against 5% nationally).
| Scheme structure | Selwyn District | New Zealand |
|---|---|---|
| Cross-lease schemes (shared sections) | 119 | 87,651 |
| Two-flat schemes | 89.1% | 76.2% |
| Three-flat schemes | 6.7% | 12.2% |
| Four or more flats | 4.2% | 11.4% |
| Typical section size (from the titles, not a survey) | 979 m² | 908 m² |
| Typical land per flat | 452 m² | 408 m² |
| Schemes with a garage written into a lease | 37.0% | 28.4% |
| Schemes with a carport in a lease | 2.5% | 13.3% |
| Schemes with a separate exclusive-use area | 1.7% | 4.5% |
| Schemes referring to more than one flats plan (usually redrawn; not by itself a problem) | 33.6% | 35.6% |
| Median year of earliest current title | 1991 | 1988 |
| Two-flat schemes on 700 m² or more | 84 | 54,978 |
Suburbs in Selwyn District by cross-lease share
| Suburb | Cross-lease titles | Live titles | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln | 119 | 6,126 | 1.9% |
| Leeston | 42 | 2,284 | 1.8% |
| Darfield | 40 | 2,399 | 1.7% |
| Rolleston | 34 | 15,556 | 0.2% |
Burnt Hill and Arthur's Pass National Park straddle another council; LINZ lists Selwyn District first, so their titles are counted here.
Selwyn District at a glance
27% of titles in Selwyn District's suburbs were first issued since 2020, well above New Zealand (12%). 26% of titles are within 400 m of a public transport stop with a scheduled weekday service, and 1% within 400 m of a frequent one. The wider district is a little drier than the national average for homes (870 mm of rain a year, against 1,000 mm) and cooler than it (11.3°C, against 13.5°C), on NASA POWER's ~50 km grid.
| 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 | Titles within 400 m of a public transport stop | Typical distance to the coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln | 1.9% | $660 | 33.4% | 36.1 | 95.2% | 0.7° | 23.5% | 12.7 km |
| Leeston | 1.8% | No data | 15.9% | 39.9 | 79.2% | 0.7° | 0.0% | 11.9 km |
| Darfield | 1.7% | $585 | 25.1% | 42.1 | 76.3% | 0.7° | 17.5% | 45 km |
| Rolleston | 0.2% | No data | 37.7% | No data | No data | 0.7° | 44.4% | 21.2 km |
New titles by year in Selwyn District
2025 brought 2,257 titles still live, more than the 5-year average before it (1,498), against a peak of 2,679 in 2022.
| Year issued | All new titles | Freehold | Unit titles | Cross-lease | Leasehold | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1,480 | 1,444 | 24 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
| 2021 | 1,436 | 1,417 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 2022 | 2,679 | 2,669 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| 2023 | 858 | 834 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| 2024 | 1,035 | 1,029 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| 2025 | 2,257 | 2,253 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 2026 (Jan–Sep) | 1,214 | 1,187 | 18 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
Unit titles in Selwyn District, by suburb
Selwyn District at the 2023 Census
| Measure | Selwyn District 2023 Census |
|---|---|
| Usual residents | 78,144 |
| Change since 2018 | +29.0% |
| Change since 2013 | +75.2% |
| Median age | 37.6 |
| Households | 26,919 |
| Own or part-own their home (including family trusts) | 80.5% |
| Not owned and not in a family trust (mostly renting) | 19.5% |
| Median household income | $122,100 |
| Median weekly rent, renting households | $480 |
| Dwellings unoccupied on census night | 7.4% |
| Ages | |
| Under 15 | 21.3% |
| 15 to 29 | 17.0% |
| 30 to 64 | 48.7% |
| 65 and over | 13.0% |
| Where people came from | |
| Born overseas | 23.9% |
| Of those born overseas, arrived in the last 5 years | 17.6% |
| Lived elsewhere in New Zealand 5 years ago (of all residents, including children born since) | 50.1% |
| Lived overseas 5 years ago (of all residents) | 3.2% |
| Moved here in the last year (of all residents) | 19.7% |
| Work and study (people 15 and over) | |
| Bachelor degree or higher | 26.2% |
| Employed full-time | 58.2% |
| Unemployed (share of everyone 15 and over, not the unemployment rate) | 1.7% |
| Managers and professionals (of those employed) | 45.8% |
| Median personal income | $51,900 |
| Getting to work (of those employed) | |
| Work from home | 18.9% |
| Car, truck or van | 74.9% |
| Bus, train or ferry | 1.3% |
| Walk or cycle | 3.5% |
| Households and families | |
| One-person households | 14.1% |
| Average people per household | 2.9 |
| Households with no motor vehicle | 1.3% |
| Crowded households (need one or more extra bedrooms) | 2.0% |
| Couples with children (of families) | 49.7% |
| Couples without children | 41.3% |
| One-parent families | 9.1% |
| Homes | |
| Separate (stand-alone) houses | 94.6% |
| Average bedrooms | 3.5 |
| Heated with a heat pump | 79.5% |
| Damp, always or sometimes | 7.6% |
| Mould over A4 size, always or sometimes | 4.4% |