Ferrymead Demographics


The last decade has seen substantial change to the Ferrymead area. What was predominantly a light industrial business district, has now realigned itself to meet the shopping and entertainment needs of the fast growing beach & hill suburbs. As the services improve and increase, the local market is being augmented by destination shoppers from all over Christchurch. Ferrymead has still to reach its huge potential as a destination retail and service centre. The Estuary, with 24 top end retail and office units, will begin to bridge the gap between demand & supply.

Supply & Demand

With the advent of large scale shopping malls in the North, North West and West of the City one would be forgiven for thinking there is an oversupply of shops in Christchurch. While this may apply to these areas of Christchurch, it does not apply to the Eastern, beach and hill suburbs. There is an undersupply of retail shops and services available. These suburbs have had the highest real estate prices in Canterbury for some time. The hill and beach suburbs are also some of the fastest growing and most affluent in Christchurch. With rentals that are in the order of 1/5th that the malls charge and no % of profit taken, quality retailers will do well in Ferrymead.

Demographics – Analysis of Statistics NZ 2001 census survey

Ferrymead area has had a 36.1% population change since 1996. New sub-divisions in Current sub-divisions in Richmond Hill, Egnot Heights, Mount Pleasant, Kildare, Heathcote, Monks Spur

Education

  • The Scarborough/Sumner beach & hill suburbs had 42% more of their Population (15 years +) with Post School Qualifications compared to Chch City.

Occupations

  • The most popular Occupational Group in the Scarborough/Sumner beach & hill suburbs was Professionals with 23.73% compared with Chch City, where Service & Sales Workers were the largest group on 16.8%

Income

  • The median income for the Scarborough/Sumner beach & hill suburbs was 35.65% higher than the median income for Chch City.

Spending

  • The total average spending per household for the Scarborough/Sumner beach & hill suburbs was 12.75% higher than that of Chch city.

Population Growth

  • The population of the Ferrymead & Heathcote areas has seen a 36.1% increase since 1996 compared to an overall change of 2.3% for Christchurch City