New Lots resulting from Subdivision

The average lot size of rural subdivisions on Class I, II and III soils has increased in recent years. Before 2010/11, the average newly created lot size of created lots on high quality soils was less than 12 ha. However, since 2010/11 the average lot size is about 22ha.

The relatively low number of proprties that are subdivided in an average year and the variability of their size can create distortions in the figures. The recent larger average lot size may have been in response to Plan Change 42 - Rural Subdivision, Council's review of the subdivision rules, which specified a new minimum lot size of 40 hectares in the Rural Zone, but did also, however, introduce the boundary relocation rule. In the years 2016/17 to 2018/19 the average subdivision lot size on high quality soils was 29.3, 41.8 and 30.7 hectares, respectively.

Rural-Residential Subdivision

The number of lots between 2,500m² and 1 hectare in the Rural and Rural-Residential zones has steadily increased between 2008/09 and 2017/18.

Approximately 2,727 dwellings exist on Class I, II and III soils in the Rural and Rural-Residential zones within the district. A number of these are small lifestyle and house blocks, and are not used for productive purposes. However lifestyle blocks are only using a small percentage of our productive land.

• Approximately 98% of the high class soils are likely to be for productive uses on larger blocks of land in the Rural zone
• Approximately 1% of the high class soils is made up of small sized land parcels (up to 4.5 hectares)
• Approximately 1% of the high class soils is made up of designations