Red-zoned houses in Christchurch could be moved onto public land and habitable by Christmas if a city councillor's proposal gets the go-ahead.
Glenn Livingstone wants the council to relocate abandoned houses, as Housing New Zealand is doing, to help ease the shortage of affordable housing.
If the proposal gets signed off by the new council, some of the 500 suitable houses could be moved in the coming weeks.
While acknowledging Housing New Zealand is already carrying out a similar project, Mr Livingstone says the need is so great there is room for both organisations to do the same job.
"We don't know whether they have the capacity to take all of the houses and do it themselves or the time to do it, so I think it'd be good to actually work in partnership and get this under way."
Mr Livingstone says there will be no purchase cost and relocation and refurbishment will cost about $80,000 per house.
