Arrowtown-based regional economist Benje Patterson was ‘‘shocked’’ when he examined rental housing data in the Queenstown-Lakes recently.
Data from bonds lodged shows in the 12 months to November last year, 100 fewer rentals were available.
He quips if he was good packing sardines into cans, he could get about 500 workers into those properties.
Referencing the 1200 people presently missing from the accommodation and hospitality sectors in the district, he says those 500 workers could ‘‘pretty much close the gap that I need to deliver really high-quality accommodation and hospitality without burning out the staff’’.
Patterson says he checked the figures for December a couple of weeks ago — that month, alone, another 30-odd houses disappeared from the rental housing pool.
‘‘That’s 100, 150 workers, just as we’re getting ready for our biggest month of the year.’’
Based on new homes consented, and factoring population growth, there were more than 1000 new homes consented than were needed last year.
Over the past three years, there’ve been 2157 houses built over and above what population growth’s required.
When Patterson looked at short-stay visitor accommodation, which ‘‘according to the findings from the court of public opinion … is the sole demon’’, he found just over 400 more listings last year, compared to 2021.
But there are still 552 fewer homes being used for that than pre-Covid.
Taking into account those numbers, he says that leaves 600 homes unaccounted for.
Data from the 2018 census showed 27% of houses across the district were unoccupied.
Patterson says there are roughly 20,000 homes in the Queenstown-Lakes, so that breaks down to about 6000 pads sitting empty.
‘‘Even if we had a one percentage point change to the number … move 1% into some level of occupancy … you’ve got 200-plus additional rentals available.
‘‘[That’s] 600 to 1000 beds for workers.
‘‘How can things be disincentivised, a little bit, to be unoccupied, and incentivised for occupancy?
‘‘Are there ways to distinguish in our rating system, for example?
‘‘When we’re looking at the challenge with [short-term visitor accommodation], we also have to align that with what’s happening elsewhere in our housing market, realising that there are large numbers of houses not put to any real use beyond recreation by the owners.’’
