Christchurch earthquake: EQC brings in another 200 assessors

Infrastructure damage in Christchurch from the September earthquake pushed many businesses into using remote services and implementing better backup procedures. Photo / Geoff Sloan

The Earthquake Commission says they will be starting assessment of earthquake damaged buildings in more suburbs of Christchurch today.

Spokesman Bryan Dunne says another 200 assessors are being brought in to the city this week to speed up inspections.

"We're focusing on properties where first of all there's a need for emergency repairs so that homes can be made habitable faster," he told Newstalk ZB. "Then we'll be prioritising from that for severe structural damage and others.

"We'll be looking to move into Papanui, Burnside, Harewood and Bishopdale. We'll have 500 people on the ground and we'll be moving through and doing further properties."

Mr Dunne says the priority is to make houses secure, weather-tight or habitable with a focus on winter heating issues or houses where residents may be sick and elderly. He says they have made good progress and are ahead of where they'd hoped to be at this stage but he says there's still a lot of work to do.

Full assessments now underway are focusing on properties where the damage is likely to be over $100,000 worth.

- Newstalk ZB