Over the next 12 months Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) plans to look for levers to influence housing affordability and identify underutilised land which could be repurposed for housing.

Those are two of the top priorities for the next stage of the Joint Housing Action Plan (JHAP), which aims to ensure community members can access secure, stable, and affordable housing.

Approved last April, the JHAP aims to improve housing affordability across 34 ‘key actions’.

They range from influencing and incentivising developers to provide affordable housing; working with the community to find solutions to rental shortage with a focus on workforce housing; and finding opportunities to purchase land for the provision of affordable housing.

Council staff provided an update on the implementation of the JHAP to the planning and strategy committee earlier this month, around 18 months after it was approved.

“The indicators show there has been some improvement to housing affordability over the last 12 months, although housing is still very unaffordable in the district,” QLDC strategic planner housing Emily Irwin said.

“[Local affordability housing provider Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust (QLCHT)] now supports an additional 29 households, however their waiting list has increased from 980 to 1,289.”

QLDC had made progress on all 34 actions, and some of the highlights of the past year include facilitating more than $10M in contributions to the QLCHT, and helping to facilitate another $20M in investment and loans for the QLCHT from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Emily said.

Council staff have met with developers, Kainga Ora, iwi and central government to identify opportunities for affordable housing; they are working with Tiny Homes NZ to create a seminar about tiny homes; and they are “building insights and evidence” by monitoring key indicators and undertaking targeted research and expert analysis.

When the JHAP was approved mayor Glyn Lewers said it focused on the less-visible, but-vital levers and regulations that influence the building and availability of housing.

He said it is not a silver bullet for the district’s housing challenges, but a broad, multi-agency plan (created with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Kāinga Ora and the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust) to help influence housing outcomes.

QLDC staff will present the full Joint Housing Action Plan update to councillors at a meeting on September 19.

PHOTO: Supplied