Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) staff have shared an update on an ‘action plan’ which aims to ensure members of the community can access quality, secure, stable, and affordable housing.

The Queenstown Lakes District Joint Housing Action Plan (JHAP), approved in late April 2023, features nine ‘key actions’ to help improve affordable housing supply.

Actions include 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.

The JHAP is described as 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.

Since the plan was approved 11 months ago, QLDC has made progress on various actions “including working with central government, local and nation-wide organisations, and across QLDC, to improve housing outcomes in the district”, QLDC strategic growth manager Anita Vanstone said.

QLDC staff are working with its property team to identify QLDC land that could be used for the provision of affordable housing and looking into previous work done by Kainga Ora and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment on lowering the cost of construction.

QLDC representatives have joined the NZ Tiny House Association working group and are looking at ways to reduce barriers for tiny home owners/renters, including better communication of local requirements.

The council has also begun work on a community engagement and communications plan to support people to find rental accommodation and support, and as part of this it is in discussions with AirBnB, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Queenstown Housing Initiative.

Related pieces of work underway by QLDC include its inclusionary housing proposal - under which developers would need to provide an affordable housing contribution to community housing providers - and an urban intensification variation which would allow more dwellings on smaller lots.

There’s also the Grow Well partnership, another multi-agency effort which is designed to “align decision-making” on “growth related challenges; and the council is undertaking advocacy, supporting the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust, and improving its data to build the case for new funding and policy support from central government and the community. 

The Joint Housing Action Plan update was presented to the QLDC planning and strategy committee on February 13.

Read the full update at the council website.

PHOTO: Wānaka App