Nearly 80% of the remaining 8096 properties in the residential orange zone in Canterbury have been rezoned to green.
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said yesterday a further 6430 residential properties could be built on either as is or with individual remediation to damaged parts of the land.
Property owners would now need to work with EQC to repair their land, if required, and with their insurer or EQC to repair and rebuild their homes.
Even though land damage might be present on some properties in the newly classified green zone, most could be repaired on an individual basis as part of normal insurance processes, he said.
In some areas, small area-wide or co-ordinated land repair work might be more cost-effective and it would make sense for property owners to work together.
The Department of Building and Housing had developed three new technical categories for residential foundation design as part of its guidance for repairing and rebuilding earthquake-damaged homes in Canterbury.
Those new categories applied to liquefaction-prone flat land in the green zone in the greater Christchurch urban area, Mr Brownlee said.
There were 1666 residential properties that remained in the orange zone because further work was required before any decisions could be made about their land, he said.
"I appreciate the incredible frustration these homeowners will be experiencing and I would like to assure them we are working hard to get some certainty for them.
"I ask that they hang on for a while longer, as we still need to do further investigation and evaluate all the options available with their best interests in mind," he said.
