Dunedin housing woes to be discussed at summit

A housing summit will be held in Dunedin as the city's property market creaks under the pressure of population growth and increasing costs.

The summit, which will be held on Thursday, is being pushed by the Mayor's Taskforce for Housing and is a starting point from which to address the problems facing the city's housing market.

Taskforce chairman Aaron Hawkins said the city was already facing housing challenges and there was an increasing focus on affordability for people on low and fixed incomes.

About 150 people are expected to attend the summit, including developers, land owners, community organisations, community housing providers, financial institutions, Ngai Tahu and Dunedin City Council staff.

"The demand for accommodation and labour in Dunedin will grow in the years to come with major projects in the city over the next decade, especially the hospital rebuild and planned development at the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic.

"It's critical to the city that these successes aren't soured by exacerbating existing issues.''

Any solutions would have to be collaborative, so bringing iwi, government, community and other parties together made sense, Cr Hawkins said.