Mounting calls for a summit on rental housing disaster
It’s gone beyond a crisis.
Queenstown’s rental housing issues are now verging on a catastrophe.
Hundreds of employees are frantically seeking any form of secure, affordable, long-term accommodation.
Anyone advertising a room, or, on the rare occasion, a house to rent, is inundated with inquiries within minutes.
Those who miss out are becoming increasingly desperate, with several people now understood to be reduced to living in their cars, or pitching tents.
Mountain Scene’s receiving disturbing accounts from Queenstowners — both New Zealand residents and migrants — with employment, who are at their wits’ end.
They’re calling for any kind of solution to alleviate the pressure, and their stress, including turning 12 Mile Delta into a ‘tent city’, where workers could camp while a longer-term solution is found.
It’s not a new story — rental housing issues have made headlines in Queenstown for almost 50 years.
More recently though, the issue reared its ugly head again in 2021, when Scene reported waitlists for viewings of rental pads were becoming
the norm, and it was taking about a month to find a place to call home.
The issue is being exacerbated by property owners choosing to switch from the long-term rental market back into Airbnb, for example, now tourists have returned.
Also in play are ‘healthy homes’ regulations, and the Residential Tenancies Act.
Yet little, if any, action has yet been taken.
Q’town won’t work without worker housing
In a community full of innovators and collaborators — one in which every sector is being adversely affected — a meeting of the minds is now long overdue.
In response to Scene inquiries, there appears to be an appetite for a solutions-focused summit between those who have the ideas and ability to help.
Queenstown mayor Glyn Lewers says the council’s doing everything ‘‘within its power’’ to find solutions, but has legislative limits.
While he expects the action plan part of the ‘Queenstown Lakes Homes and Strategy Action Plan’ to be in front of councillors ‘‘in the first half of this year’’, it could be argued that’s too late.
Lewers says there needs to be significant infrastructure work done first, to create quality places to build homes, and council’s working with Kāinga Ora and Waka Kotahi on that.
Queenstown’s council signalled last month it was looking at partnering with agencies to investigate ways it could help, particularly regarding worker digs.
He says they’re working with Ministry of Social Development, looking at the accommodation supplement, and are trying to explain Queenstown’s unique situation to central government.
Our man in Wellington, Southland MP Joseph Mooney, agrees a round-table discussion on housing’s needed.
While he won’t ‘‘profess to come up with solutions immediately’’, the conversation must happen.
‘‘It’s not just going to be a central government thing, it’s not just going to be a local government thing.
‘‘It’s not just going to be developer-agency, but it’s probably some combined thinking to … find some solutions.’’
Mooney notes it’s a long-term challenge, but for Queenstown businesses to work, people need places to live.
Naylor Love Central Otago boss, Queenstown’s Greg Boland, says the major building company will also ‘‘definitely’’ be happy to be involved in any conversation with the brains trust.
● Got a rental housing tale of woe, or an idea to help fix the issue? Email [email protected]
