Multimillion-dollar house demolished in Christchurch

A demolition crew in Christchurch has finally demolished a once-palatial home teetering on a cliff above the suburb of Redcliffs.

The multimillion-dollar house has been unliveable since the quakes, and those living down on the flat are not sorry to see it go either.

The stately three-storey home once boasted an indoor swimming pool, an underground garage and views that stretched on forever. But four years after the first quake it's now abandoned, slumped, twisted and sitting precariously close to the cliff. A digger moved in this afternoon to save it from complete collapse.

"We were up here checking the land damage and building damage," says Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority's (CERA) Brendan Winders. "We were clearing some vegetation, and while doing that we discovered the building and the land around it was much more compromised than we initially expected."

The home's location, just metres from the cliff edge, means specialist demolition equipment had to be brought in.

"The remote-control digger allows us to have the same sort of demolition impact without putting a man into the machine," says Mr Winders. "We use it occasionally where it is needed."

Redcliffs School sits at the bottom of the cliff. It too has been out of bounds since the quakes. Principal Kim Alexander was keeping a close eye on today's demolition. She's hoping that once the houses go, she'll get her school back.

"It is exciting," she says. "It's just a positive step in the process. We've got a long way to go before we can go back, but one of the things that has to happen is the removal of those homes."

Ms Alexander says a final decision on whether the school will ever return is up to the Ministry of Education.

3 News

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Multimillion-dollar house demolished in Christchurch