Queenstown has been overtaken as the country's most expensive place to live according to one report, but chairman of Queenstown Lake's Community Housing Trust said this is no relief.
A Massey University report released last week showed Auckland had overridden the Lakes District as the least affordable region to buy a house in the last quarter.
The report showed prices slipped from Auckland buyers by 18% while in the Queenstown region affordability improved by 9.9%.
Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust chairman David Cole said the report was not a good indication of the local market.
"I don't see low-moderate income earners in Queenstown breathing a collective sigh of relief.""Instead of just measuring the small changes from one region to another, more focus is needed in understanding why New Zealanders have to spend so much more of their household income on housing than those in most other OECD countries."The University's home affordability index was calculated using interest rates, wages and house prices. It stated that nationally, affordability dipped 1.9% in the past quarter as the national median house price went up by 3%.
Report compiler Professor Bob Hargreaves said during the past quarter only four of the 12 regions showed improvements in affordability - Otago-Lakes (9.9%) Waikato-Bay of Plenty (4%); Northland (2.4%); and Southland (0.9%).
Affordability deteriorated in Hawkes Bay (11.4%) Auckland (5.8%) Manawatu-Wanganui (4.8%); Wellington (3.3%); Canterbury-Westland (2.6%); Nelson-Marlborough (2.4%); Otago (0.3%) and Taranaki (0.1%).
Mr Cole said affordability was a national problem, but one particular to Queenstown.
"The facts remain - housing affordability is a structural problem in New Zealand and Queenstown by any measure has one of the most intractable problems in the country."
He said the trust aimed to help solve Queenstown's problem with packages such as the "starter loan" packages giving buyers a five-year fixed interest rate of 5.2%.
