At the start of the year council allowed the Lake Hāwea Special Housing Area (SHA) to increase its house and land package prices by as much ten per cent, and now it has approved another change requested by the developer.

The 34ha Hāwea site was classified as an SHA in December 2018, with a deed signed which set out affordable housing conditions, including a limit of 30 per cent on bare section sales to prevent land banking. 

Yesterday (Thursday March 18) Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) councillors signed off on a change which means up to 40 per cent of sections can now be sold bare.

QLDC policy planner Katie Russell acknowledged the increased risk of land banking and speculative purchases of bare land, but went on to recommend the change be approved.

“There is a risk that this land could end up being land banked at the discretion of the individual land owners,” she said.

See also: From affordable to relatively affordable

An additional win for the developer, Universal Developments, is that first home buyers will be exempt from the 40 per cent threshold, which in effect allows a higher number of bare land sales.

Universal Developments director Lane Hocking unsuccessfully requested an increase in bare land sales to 50 per cent in October last year. 

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After “careful consideration” he more recently requested the new 40 per cent limit “on the basis that first home buyers will be exempt from this limit”.

Lane said the other affordability measures at the SHA included five-year prohibition of section on-sales without a house, a limit to section sales of one per person, and affordability criteria on house and land packages.

“We believe that this reinforces [the SHA] as superior to anything offered to date and

enhances it as the most compelling affordable housing product in the district,” he said.

Katie said the change to bare land sale numbers would provide slightly more flexibility in how the development can be sold, while still promoting housing choice for first time home buyers.

She said the Lake Hāwea SHA deed went further than any other in the district in terms of affordability outcomes and noted the economic changes since the deed was signed in 2018.

The 465-lot Hāwea SHA, advertised as Longview and located on the south side of Cemetery Road, this month opened pre-sales for stage one of the development.

PHOTO: Wanaka App