Decorative photo Selwyn continues to grow at a rapid rate with council staff processing a record number of 645 new residential consents in the June 2026 quarter, up 61.7% from the previous year and breaking the record of 636 consents set in the March quarter.

The latest economic data released by Infometrics this week, showed the district’s growth accelerated across most key statistics, despite the economic headwinds caused by the Middle East conflict.

The district’s GDP continued to grow by 3% compared to the national average of 1.7%, while consumer spending jumped by a whopping 9.4%, compared to 0.6% nationally.

Selwyn Mayor Lydia Gliddon says that the numbers show that the Selwyn economy is in a great place and is proud of council staff managing the unparallelled growth in the district, from processing consents to building new infrastructure.

“Our consenting team is forced to set new records every quarter, and has been able to do this through innovation, like the online consenting dashboard, and our professional partnership programme, that works with businesses to make the consenting process as smooth as possible,” says Gliddon.

The economic data show that Selwyn is growing rapidly, but in a well-planned, responsible manner and that additional unplanned developments through the Fast-track process could tip this extremely sensitive balancing act for council and residents, she says.

The record number of new homes continues to drive house sales in the district, with an 11.6% increase in house sales in Selwyn compared to 2.2% nationally. Affordability indicators that compare the cost of housing with average household income show that Selwyn is more affordable in both housing prices and rental affordability than the national average.  In the year to June, 126 buyers used the Kainga Ora First Home Loan Scheme, which is an 85.3% increase compared to a year earlier.

Selwyn also continues to outstrip the rest of the country in new businesses, up 5.2% compared to 1.2% nationally, while employment grew by 4.7% compared to a small decline of 0.3% across New Zealand.

Strong business confidence is also shown by a 30.7 % increase in the value of non-residential consents, compared to a 2.8% downturn nationally, as well as a 14.1% increase in commercial vehicle registrations.

“It is great to see that Selwyn is not just a great place to live but also a very attractive location to start a new business,” says Mayor Gliddon.

Overall car registrations jumped by 12.1%, with more people opting for electric vehicles and hybrids likely due to increased petrol costs, with EV registrations more than doubled to new 375 registrations in the 12 months to June.

“New houses, new businesses and more cars are all positive indicators for the economy, but as council we also need to think about the infrastructure to support this activity,” says Gliddon.

“We have limited tools to fund all this infrastructure, so we will continue to talk to Central Government about accessing our fair share in infrastructure funding and help us create new funding streams.”

Last modified: 20 Aug 2026 10:03am