Only two of the six Queenstown Lakes mayoral candidates own property beyond the gates of their family home.
Mountain Scene this week asked the candidates to outline their property interests, given affordable housing’s become a leading election issue in an area where it’s become so unaffordable.
Al Angus, Glyn Lewers, Daniel Shand and Neeta Shetty all say the only property they own is their family home.
Jon Mitchell says he and his wife are currently renting in Arrowtown while they look for a home to buy in Frankton.
They own a cottage and two-storey townhouse on a Wellington property which is on the market — ‘‘it’s being used as affordable housing for a former colleague of my wife’’ — and four hectares near Garston, in northern Southland, on which they’re going to build an off-grid eco-lodge.
Olivia Wensley nominates three sections on Frankton Road, which will be ‘‘combined into 40 sections and sold for affordable housing’’, and a Queenstown Hill section.
In Scene last week, she said the Frankton Rd properties are owned by a company her husband Greg’s involved with.
Wensley’s main campaign backer, tech billionaire Rod Drury, has an effective 24.9% stake in this company, through a nominee company.
According to property records, two of the properties were bought in April this year for $1,900,000 and $1,576,000.
Meanwhile, Wensley bought her 1358 square metre Birch Lane property, on Queenstown Hill, for $450,000 in August 2020 — she’s since obtained resource consent for four high-end residences, called The Tenzing, and through a real estate company is now looking for offers over $899,000 for ‘‘this development opportunity’’.
