There are 235 households waiting for affordable housing in Wānaka, making up about 20% of the 1300 households on Queenstown Lakes district’s waiting list.
Demand for an affordable house in Wānaka has also increased 56% from three years ago on the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust’s Wānaka wait list.
The trust’s executive officer Julie Scott said at an Wānaka Community Board meeting this week the trust had 50 properties in the Wānaka area under a variety of tenures and programmes. It had just finished a 28-lot affordable housing development at Universal Development’s Longview development at Lake Hawea.
Another 38 Longview sections were in the design phase and due to roll out over the next year, Mrs Scott said.
Mt Cardrona Station was now building two affordable houses and had another six to come, while there were four houses being built at Hikuwai to add to the six already there, she said.
Work was continuing with Allan Dippie with the hope that some sections at Three Park would happen at some stage, because the Wānaka waiting list was growing all the time, she said.
"Hopefully they will be medium density, a bit higher density than is traditional. We are big fans of density. Currently that is the only way to get the house numbers up," Mrs Scott said.
Another Wānaka project was to create affordable housing for seniors.
The trust was planning to redevelop units on property it owned on McDougall St to create 12 or more homes. Public submissions have closed and a hearing will be scheduled for later this year.
Her board update follows disappointment expressed earlier this month by the trust and district councillors, when the council decided to withdraw an inclusionary housing variation from the proposed district plan, on the recommendation of an independent hearing panel.
Mrs Scott said the best options at the moment were at the Three Parks or Orchard Rd housing developments, "unless we find a piece of land ourselves below market value".
