The Perspectives of Commercial Property Stakeholders in Post-Disaster Rebuild

Abstract

This paper seeks to expand our theoretical knowledge on what happens in post-disaster rebuild from the perspective of commercial property stakeholders (investors and developers; agents and professionals). By exploring how they have fared in a post-disaster rebuild environment, this paper has provided a nuanced understanding of the complex challenges they face after a major disaster. This paper adopts an interpretive approach to understanding what it takes to rebuild in a post-disaster environment through the lens and experiences of property stakeholders. After a series of catastrophic earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand, there was consequential damage to most of the commercial buildings in the central business district (CBD). Seven (7) years on, the CBD is still being rebuilt after so much demolition and clearing of debris for an extended period when the city was cordoned off just after the earthquakes. For this study, qualitative data was gathered via semi-structured interviews from twenty (20) purposively identified “Informed Property Stakeholders” involved in post-disaster rebuilding. The interview findings were subjected to an interpretative and thematic analysis used to provide a veracious way of characterising the viewpoints of those interviewed. Overall, this paper has highlighted the perspectives of those interviewed and the findings conveyed that post-disaster rebuilding was an unprecedented and unusual challenge for many property stakeholders.