A massive new housing development focused solely on a ‘build-to-rent’ model is expected to ease housing woes in Queenstown.
Simplicity Living, an off-shoot to KiwiSaver provider Simplicity, has bought just over six hectares of land on Ladies Mile to build 600 build-to-rent homes and apartments.
“As one of the most unaffordable and constrained housing locations in New Zealand, we prioritised bringing our high-quality, secure tenure build-to-rent housing solution to the region,” manager director Shane Brealey said.
It is one possible solution to a problem that plagues the district – houses that sit empty most of the year.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council estimates around 6000 residential properties have been consented in the past five years – many are yet to be built.
Julie Scott from Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust said the region had plenty of new homes being built, but not enough being rented out. (Source: Breakfast)
But many of those will never be lived in for the long-term because many are holiday homes or short-term accommodation.
Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust chief executive Julie Scott told 1News, “the latest Census results said that we have 27% of our homes in the district unoccupied.”
“That’s more than a quarter of houses sitting empty every single night. It’s absolutely nuts.”
The housing trust has already built some mixed-use properties in the town, but demand for long-term rentals is outstripping supply.
“We currently have 1480 eligible households on our waiting list across Queenstown and Wanaka [and] 83% of those are Queenstown based,” Scott said.
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“We can’t help all of them straight away. We need more entry-level market rental properties.”
Simplicity managing director Sam Stubbs told 1News while 42% of people in the OECD live in apartments, in New Zealand the number is just 4%.
“What we want to do is show New Zealanders and, in this case, the people of Queenstown [is] that you can actually rent for the long-term in a really high-quality place at an affordable price and you can do that forever if you want to,” he said.
Simplicity Living currently has 889 homes under construction across Auckland.
But this is the first development outside the supercity and the largest development with an estimated value of around $500 million.
“This is another example of the sort of thing our KiwiSaver scheme can help make possible,” Stubbs said. “We think it’s a good long-term investment for our members and helps provide warm, dry homes for Kiwi families, in a region that urgently needs them.”
Queenstown Lakes mayor Glyn Lewers told 1News he is pleased to see the concept come together in the tourist town on a large scale.
“Honestly, a game changer. It allows nurses, police, teachers to have a place to stay and actually work and live in Queenstown.”
While in this case, KiwiSaver is used to help build capital for construction, the Government has pushed through a build-to-rent amendment bill to make it easier for foreign investment in the model.
It passed its first reading in June and will head to select committee.
In the meantime, Lewers is aware while more rentals is one thing, there is also focus on infrastructure challenges that surround new developments.
“We’ve still got to sort out the transport issues, we’ve still got to sort out the underground infrastructure,” he said.
“And look, the Government’s also got to step up with schooling and health as well.”
He continued, “We know that mum and dad driving their kids to school in the morning contributes to the traffic. So, if we could have schools in the right spots, it obviously alleviates that.”