According to figures from property management company Home & Co, the number of rental properties available for winter workers in Wanaka are down by one third compared to previous years.

“We’ve had a lot of calls and emails from people that are desperate to find rental homes,” Home & Co director Colleen Topping said.

“Two years ago, we would have had a third more stock, everything got rented a month ago. We’ve got nothing.”

The temporary laws introduced during Covid-19 preventing property owners from terminating tenancies during lockdown has scared property owners away from offering up their homes, she suggested.

“People aren’t making those houses available for rent because they can’t demand their houses back,” Colleen said.

Carmen Blackler is the founder of The Workforce Accommodation Network (The WAN), a new service created in December to help address the issue of seasonal rental shortages.

Carmen wants to encourage the community to help out by welcoming workers into their homes if they can, so they have somewhere safe and affordable to live.

“We have over 40 people in the system to find accommodation for,” Carmen said. “Historically, when there’s a shortage, the workers will sleep in their cars or bunk on friends’ floors. When there are no properties it’s a bit difficult to see what the options are,” she said.

Cardrona-Treble Cone, one of Wanaka’s largest employers, has been working hand-in-hand with The WAN.

Cardrona-Treble Cone head of people and performance Laura Hedley said staff are struggling more than usual to find accommodation this winter.

“We are definitely seeing it harder to find staff somewhere to live for winter - it’s harder this year than it has been in the past,” she said.

Carmen said if property owners understand the difference between housing a worker as a flatmate as opposed to a tenant, it may encourage them to make rooms available to seasonal workers.

If someone else signs the tenancy agreement but lets you share the flat, you are a flatmate; flatmates live in the property but are not part of the tenancy agreement.

If you are a seasonal worker looking for housing this winter, you can create your profile on the The WAN here.

 PHOTO: Supplied