Over a decade after the Christchurch earthquakes, businesses are returning to the city centre from the suburbs, as incentives to move back grow.

In a report by Radio NZ, real estate firm Colliers said that office vacancies are now at pre-earthquake levels and have reached the third-lowest point since 1993, when the company began compiling the data.

Brynn Burrows, director of commercial leasing at Colliers, said that businesses are returning due to financial incentives from CBD landlords to attract tenants. Burrows added that many companies made sizeable investments by using their earthquake insurance pay-outs to build or fit out offices in the suburbs.

“Now, to effectively occupy the remainder of buildings [in the CBD], landlords have been offering incentives, largely rent free, and that allows the tenants to invest in new fitouts in the CBD,” he said.

The availability of office space and cheap rent, as well as staff’s positive opinion of the city centre, were among the factors fuelling the shift, Burrows said. Furthermore, Christchurch was not hit as hard as Auckland and Wellington by COVID-19 closures, the report added.