Construction has begun on a $217 million north Christchurch retirement village, nearly three years after Ryman Healthcare bought the land to build it.

The Belfast complex will accommodate 350 residents on a 12.9 hectare site. As well as townhouses and apartments, it will have 60 rest home, hospital and dementia care beds.

Ryman bought the land, on Main North Rd next to the Belfast Supa Centre, for $12.9m in 2019 from Canadian investors. As the Christchurch-based retirement village operator is partly overseas-owned, the purchase required Overseas Investment Office approval.

The retirement village is one of three Ryman has in the pipeline in the Christchurch area.

It has resource consent to build a large complex in multi-storey buildings on Park Tce in the central city, which will be its biggest investment yet in the city.

The company reworked the design of the complex to gain the consent after neighbouring residents complained it would affect their privacy and hinder sunlight getting to their properties.

At Rolleston, Ryman owns a 9.5ha site on Goulds Rd in the Faringdon subdivision, where it will spend $205m building a retirement village for 280 residents. That complex will also have individual units plus rest home, dementia and hospital facilities.

David King, the company’s head of communications and external relations, said they were designing the Rolleston complex now, and would apply for consent later this year.

“Then we will get under way as soon as we can next year.”

At Belfast, trees have been cleared from the site and early foundation work has started. The concrete slabs for the townhouses will go up from early September.

Ryman’s New Zealand chief executive, Cheyne Chalmers, said the first residents are expected to move in next year. Facilities will include a swimming pool, bar, and electric vehicle charging points.

The company already has eight villages in Canterbury which are home to just over 2000 residents. Across New Zealand and Australia the company has 45 complexes, another 16 under construction, and 13,200 residents.

Another Christchurch-based retirement village operator, Qestral​ Corporation, has almost completed building its $210m Banbury Park complex on 14 hectares in Halswell.

Banbury Park will have 191 free-standing houses, 42 apartments, and a rest home with hospital and dementia care plus a pool and restaurant.

It will be Qestral’s third retirement complex in Christchurch, and its fourth in the South Island.

In Rangiora, retirement village operator Summerset has bought a 9ha site on South Belt where it is planning a new complex with 300 homes.

The first stages of Ashford retirement village in Prebbleton have been opened by Auckland-based operator Bupa, with 16 serviced apartments and a 56-bed care home due to open early next year.

A June report from real estate firm JLL said about 49,000 Kiwis live in retirement complexes, up from 45,000 in 2020.