Housing minister Megan Woods says there are no quick fixes to the district’s "decades-in-the-making" housing crisis.

The minister spoke to Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce members on Tuesday (April 18) saying she wanted to find out from ‘people on the ground’ what the solutions may be to improving the supply of affordable housing in the district.

It was short-term solutions to the district's rental crisis that audience members wanted to grill her on.

Some audience members said property owners’ hands are tied by government red tape.

Housemart Queenstown director Hayley Stevenson told the minister changes to the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA), specifically around ending fixed-term tenancies, meant holiday property owners were no longer making their homes available to rent short-term.

Hayley said her company used to have about 40 houses in Wānaka offered as seasonal rentals and there'd be at least that number in Queenstown.

She said she is dealing with a family who is moving into a car to live because they have nowhere to go.

"I have had a homeowner come to me offering his house for four months that would be suitable for these people,” Hayley said. “But I cannot guarantee that owner at the four-month end of that fixed term tenancy that I can hand the house back, because I need a reason to end that tenancy.

"Because our non-reason clause has been taken away from us, with the changes to the RTA, it has really hindered our seasonal supply."

The minister was also questioned on reinstating mortgage interest-deductibility for landlords, the potential for transitional housing in Queenstown (as seen in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake), the potential to force residential homeowners to bring their own homes up to Healthy Homes standards, KiwiSaver caps, and ways to monitor the more than 1,500 Airbnbs, especially those flouting 90-day rules without resource consent.

"Believe me, the housing crisis, as minister of housing, I understand the complexity and seriousness of it every single day," she said. 

The minister with Queenstown Chamber boss Sharon Fifield (right) at the session

The minister confirmed she will look at the Residential Tenancies Act with regards to periodic tenancies. 

After the minister’s visit local economist Benje Patterson posted on LinkedIn, highlighting the seriousness of the housing crisis in Queenstown Lakes.

Benje was commissioned by Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) last year to produce a report on the local housing crisis.

The report found that an increase in houses being built in the last few years had not eased the housing crisis and a multi-agency, multi-angle response would be required to improve housing affordability and suppply.

See also: ‘Housing shortage must be ‘tackled from many angles’

“We have a desperate lack of housing that is affordable, but we also have a complete absence of houses available for rent at present at any price,” Benje said. 

“Many people living in cars in Queenstown are not poor, with most employed and earning far more than even a living wage - they simply can’t find a house to rent at any price point.”

Benje said the Queenstown lakes district had 4,077 active rental properties as at February 2023, just 126 more than the pre-Covid level of 3,951.

“Over that same period we have had cumulative population growth of thousands of people – so more people chasing a barely changed rental pool,” he said.

“The story for renters looks more dire when we consider changes in the rental pool over the past 12 months – if we look at a period from June 2022 to January 2023, the number of houses actively being rented in each of these months was 15 to 81 homes less than in the same month the previous year.

“These kinds of movements in the rental stock don’t even scratch the surface of our worker accommodation challenge when you consider businesses have hired more than 1,000 extra staff over the past year and that there were well over 1,000 additional homes built in the district.”

Benje said he is not holding his breath that the urgent changes required to encourage landlords across the district to offer up their homes will occur.

PHOTOS: Queenstown App