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Last modified: 22 Aug 2024 10:34am

View of a street with cars parked and driving down the street and business buildings on the right side

Selwyn residents are embracing the growing opportunities to live and buy local, new economic figures show.

More Selwyn residents are spending their dollars in the district, according to new Infometrics figures that show consumer spending in the district growing by more than 13% over the past year to June.

That significant figure is in stark contrast to the national average increase of 1.9% and shows the overall growth of the district, but also the increasing ability for locals to buy local.

“Our new Economic Development Strategy wants to encourage and enable our residents not only to live in Selwyn, but also to work in Selwyn and spend their money locally,” says Deputy Mayor Malcolm Lyall.

“These consumer numbers are really encouraging, along with the increased job figures,” says Lyall, referring to Selwyn’s employment rising by 6.6%, well above the 2.1% average across the rest of the country.

The number of businesses in Selwyn has grown by 4.4%, ahead of the national average of 1.5%, creating a variety of new job opportunities for Selwyn residents.

“More businesses mean more jobs for locals and these days we also see more people travelling to Selwyn to work, instead of our residents working in the city,” says Lyall.

The Deputy Mayor says increased spending and job figures are particularly encouraging as the overall economic activity fell slightly by 0.2%, to $3,585 million, in line with the national average.

The new figures were mainly influenced by high interest rates slowing down local construction in the past 12 months, but the growth in value of consents in the June quarter have signalled a changing momentum towards a building resurgence.

Despite the marginal fall in overall activity, the Selwyn District is still stronger than most areas of similar size, while only the regions relying on tourism dollars have seen a significant bounce-back after the pandemic travel restrictions.

Selwyn itself has also seen substantial benefits from the increased visitor numbers with tourism spending rising by 16.8% and guest nights in the district increasing by 5.3% over the year to June.

“We are all concerned about the current cost-of-living crisis, so it is extremely encouraging to see that the Selwyn economy is still robust and many of our residents are able to support local,” says Lyall.

To read the full Infometrics report for Selwyn, please click here.