Dr Woods, in the resort to meet Queenstown Lakes Mayor Glyn Lewers and members of the urban growth partnership group, spoke to Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce members about the acute housing crisis
in the area, which she said, repeatedly, had been "decades in the making".
She reiterated it was critical the housing supply was increased, with a key focus on increasing the number of "affordable" houses, noting during her Q&A with chamber members the median rent in Queenstown-Lakes was now $675 a week — 16% above the national average.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand’s monthly report for March, released yesterday, showed the median house price in the district was now $1.405 million, compared with $705,000 in Central Otago, $570,000 in Dunedin City and $460,000 in Waitaki.
Further south, in Gore, the median price is $301,000 compared with $450,000 in Invercargill city and $480,000 in the Southland district.
And, according to interest.co.nz, the median multiple for the Queenstown-Lakes in February, with a house price of $1.37 million, is 17.68 — a median multiple of 3.0 or less is considered a good marker of housing affordability.
While during the sometimes heated Q&A with chamber members much of the focus was on longer-term work, aiming to enable more people to buy a home, Housemart Queenstown owner Hayley Stevenson called for urgent changes to be made to the RTA, which she said would make an immediate difference for homeless workers.
She said legislative changes made to the Act meant property managers could not guarantee homeowners could get their houses back at the end of a fixed-term tenancy.
"At the moment, I’m dealing with a couple that are just moving into their car, with their 2-year-old, to live because they have nowhere to go.
"I have had a homeowner come to me, offering his house for four months."
While it would be suitable, Ms Stevenson said she was unable to guarantee the homeowner would get his house back, because a tenancy could only be ended if, for example, a homeowner wanted to move back in, or the property was going to be sold.
She believed the change to the Act had effectively removed about 80 seasonal rental properties from both Wanaka and Queenstown.
"Those houses are sitting there; the owners are willing to put their houses up for seasonal rental ... It is a solution now, but with the changes, it took away our ability to say, at the end of that fixed term, ‘this is your last date’."
While Dr Woods suggested seasonal workers, with return airfares and "clear departure dates", could be matched with property owners willing to rent to them for a few months as an immediate solution, Ms Stevenson said that did not offer any protection for owners.
"If during that tenancy, they change their mind and at the end of the fixed term they go, ‘no [we’re not leaving]’, it reverts back to the Act, and there’s nothing in there for protection."
Dr Woods would not commit to a legislative change, noting it was "something that takes a long period of time". However, Ms Stevenson responded: "You’ve had time ... I need to get this family out of a car with their 2-year-old ... I’ve got houses to put them in, and it’s red tape preventing me from doing it."
