One in five Canterbury homeowners with quake-damaged houses will have to wait until 2015 for them to be repaired by the Earthquake Commission.
EQC has announced it intends to have 80% of repairs to houses damaged in the quakes which began in September 2010 completed within three years.
Some 100,000 homes will come under the commission's repair programme with Fletcher Earthquake Recovery.
The programme covers repairs costing between $10,000 and $100,000.
EQC chief executive Ian Simpson says the total cost of the repairs is expected to be about $3 billion, in addition to the $2.7 billion already paid out by the commission.
Mr Simpson says repairs costing more than $50,000 will be given priority and other repairs dealt with street by street.
He says the remaining 20% of repairs should be completed by 2015.
Canterbury support group CanCERN says some homeowners will be frustrated by a four-year wait for repairs, but many have been expecting that sort of timeframe.
Spokesperson Leanne Curtis says people will be pleased with the EQC's promise to update them on where their neighbourhood is on the repair schedule.
