Suburbs in Timaru District: rents, census and property titles

LINZ recorded 25,757 live titles in Timaru District on 30 September 2026: 91% freehold, then cross-lease at 6.3%. Its 1,612 cross-lease titles (6.3%) are below the national share of 8.7%.

Timaru District cross-lease titles

Cross-lease titles: 1,612
Share of live titles: 6.3%
Live titles in total: 25,757
New Zealand share: 8.7%
Suburbs with 30+ cross-lease titles: 14

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

Title mix in Timaru District

Title type	Live titles	Share
Freehold	23,443	91.0%
Cross lease	1,612	6.3%
Unit title	426	1.7%
Leasehold	57	0.2%
Other record types	219	0.9%
Total	25,757	100%

Counts are titles, not homes. Sources and limits

How cross-leases in Timaru District are set up

Separate exclusive-use areas are less common (3% of schemes, against 5% nationally).

Three-flat schemes are more common here (19%, against 12% nationally).

More schemes have four or more flats on one section (17%, against 11% nationally), up to 39.

Scheme structure	Timaru District	New Zealand
Cross-lease schemes (shared sections)	620	87,651
Two-flat schemes	64.4%	76.2%
Three-flat schemes	19.2%	12.2%
Four or more flats	16.5%	11.4%
Typical section size (from the titles, not a survey)	831 m²	908 m²
Typical land per flat	337 m²	408 m²
Schemes with a garage written into a lease	32.1%	28.4%
Schemes with a carport in a lease	11.1%	13.3%
Schemes with a separate exclusive-use area	2.7%	4.5%
Schemes referring to more than one flats plan (usually redrawn; not by itself a problem)	28.7%	35.6%
Median year of earliest current title	1984	1988
Two-flat schemes on 700 m² or more	230	54,978

Sources and limits

Among suburbs with at least 300 live and 30 cross-lease titles, the highest cross-lease shares in Timaru District are in Maori Hill (27.0%), West End (18.7%), Seaview (18.5%), Highfield (11.4%), Glenwood (11.2%).

Suburbs in Timaru District by cross-lease share

Suburb	Cross-lease titles	Live titles	Share
Maori Hill	157	581	27.0%
West End	234	1,250	18.7%
Seaview	195	1,055	18.5%
Highfield	195	1,717	11.4%
Glenwood	91	815	11.2%
Waimataitai	63	761	8.3%
Kensington	51	719	7.1%
Parkside	90	1,273	7.1%
Gleniti	90	1,412	6.4%
Temuka	170	2,869	5.9%
Geraldine	98	1,858	5.3%
Timaru	37	800	4.6%
Pleasant Point	33	790	4.2%
Marchwiel	57	1,588	3.6%

Timaru District at a glance

8% of titles in Timaru District's suburbs were first issued since 2020, well below New Zealand (12%). 17% of titles are within 1 km of the sea or harbour edge. The wider district is drier than the national average for homes (680 mm of rain a year, against 1,000 mm) and cooler than it (10.9°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
Maori Hill	27.0%	$490	3.8%	44.4	83.3%	4.5°	0.5 km
Seaview	18.5%	$430	3.1%	41	82.7%	3.6°	1.1 km
Highfield	11.4%	$500	5.1%	51	85.5%	3°	2.1 km
Glenwood	11.2%	No data	No data	39.4	84.7%	3.9°	3.1 km
Waimataitai	8.3%	$490	9.2%	44.4	83.3%	4.1°	0.6 km
Kensington	7.1%	$468	8.2%	38.2	77.7%	3°	1.1 km
Gleniti	6.4%	No data	14.7%	48	90.2%	2.4°	3.8 km
Temuka	5.9%	$450	6.4%	50	76.8%	0.7°	6.8 km
Geraldine	5.3%	$470	10.9%	53.2	77.5%	1°	21.2 km
Timaru	4.6%	No data	2.3%	38.5	75.0%	2.6°	0.5 km
Pleasant Point	4.2%	No data	8.4%	45.9	69.3%	0.7°	14.6 km
Marchwiel	3.6%	No data	3.8%	39.2	80.5%	3.6°	1.5 km

Sources and limits

Compare suburbs

New titles by year in Timaru District

2025 brought 224 titles still live, fewer than the 5-year average before it (276), against a peak of 291 in 2024.

Year issued	All new titles	Freehold	Unit titles	Cross-lease	Leasehold	Other
2020	259	251	3	2	2	1
2021	277	272	0	2	3	0
2022	265	259	0	4	2	0
2023	288	277	6	2	2	1
2024	291	287	1	1	2	0
2025	224	220	0	0	4	0
2026 (Jan–Sep)	206	206	0	0	0	0

Sources and limits

Cross-lease titles in Timaru District, by suburb

Unit titles in Timaru District, by suburb

Timaru District at the 2023 Census

Measure	Timaru District 2023 Census
Usual residents	47,547
Change since 2018	+2.7%
Change since 2013	+8.2%
Median age	44.6
Households	19,557
Own or part-own their home (including family trusts)	74.5%
Not owned and not in a family trust (mostly renting)	25.5%
Median household income	$76,900
Median weekly rent, renting households	$320
Dwellings unoccupied on census night	8.0%
Ages
Under 15	17.6%
15 to 29	15.7%
30 to 64	43.9%
65 and over	22.9%
Where people came from
Born overseas	16.1%
Of those born overseas, arrived in the last 5 years	24.1%
Lived elsewhere in New Zealand 5 years ago (of all residents, including children born since)	42.1%
Lived overseas 5 years ago (of all residents)	2.8%
Moved here in the last year (of all residents)	15.7%
Work and study (people 15 and over)
Bachelor degree or higher	15.3%
Employed full-time	48.9%
Unemployed (share of everyone 15 and over, not the unemployment rate)	1.8%
Managers and professionals (of those employed)	36.1%
Median personal income	$38,600
Getting to work (of those employed)
Work from home	13.5%
Car, truck or van	78.7%
Bus, train or ferry	0.6%
Walk or cycle	5.7%
Households and families
One-person households	28.7%
Average people per household	2.3
Households with no motor vehicle	5.6%
Crowded households (need one or more extra bedrooms)	2.9%
Couples with children (of families)	35.5%
Couples without children	50.8%
One-parent families	13.6%
Homes
Separate (stand-alone) houses	85.0%
Average bedrooms	3
Heated with a heat pump	74.5%
Damp, always or sometimes	14.6%
Mould over A4 size, always or sometimes	9.5%

Sources and limits