Assessment of housing and business capacity in Queenstown Lakes District adopted

Queenstown Lakes District Council’s (QLDC) Housing and Business Capacity Assessment 2025 (HBA) has been adopted, after Elected Members considered the matter at the Full Council meeting yesterday. Otago Regional Council (ORC) anticipates presenting the same HBA to its Elected Members for adoption later this year.

Delivered in partnership with ORC, the assessment analyses the current and projected supply of land for housing and business in the district over the short, medium and long term.

QLDC General Manager Planning & Development, Dave Wallace said the HBA provides a crucial resource for understanding how planning and infrastructure decisions will affect future land availability, ultimately helping to guide sustainable growth and development in the district.

“We’re expecting population in the Queenstown Lakes District to grow by 80% and reach 97,500 over the next 30 years, which means more housing is needed, more businesses to support those residents, and more infrastructure required to service their needs,” said Mr Wallace.

“The HBA highlights our current infrastructure constraints and future shortfalls in residential, commercial, and industrial land, ultimately guiding proactive planning decisions and identifying what we’ll need more of to continue growing well as a district.”

The HBA adopts a high growth scenario to set housing bottom lines, setting out a requirement for an additional 27,100 new dwellings in the district over the next 30 years, with 9,100 required by 2033 and a further 18,000 by 2053.

While substantial plan-enabled housing capacity already exists in the Queenstown Lakes District, the HBA identifies infrastructure limitations that result in a district-wide shortfall of approximately 1,000 dwellings in the short term, especially in the Whakatipu.

A surplus of dwellings is expected in the medium and long term as investment planned for infrastructure and development opportunities increase.

Land for business is also projected to grow strongly over the next 30 years, but recent zoning changes and further infrastructure constraints show more capacity is required for retail and commercial operations, most notably 36 hectares of industrial land in the long term.

With the HBA now adopted, further work will explore alternative funding and financing tools to accelerate infrastructure delivery in priority development areas, in addition to developing an updated Spatial Plan which will help identify the location of additional land to meet demand. 

ENDS | KUA MUTU.

Media contact: communications@qldc.govt.nz or call 03 441 1802.

FURTHER INFORMATION | Kā pāroko tāpiri:

Report on Housing and Business Development Capacity (HBA) – 2025 Assessment: https://www.qldc.govt.nz/media/2iyodkfc/4-housing-and-business-capacity-council-report-2025_signed-dw-190925.pdf

Queenstown Lakes District Housing and Business Development Capacity Assessment 2025: https://www.qldc.govt.nz/media/twujq1ls/4a-hba-assessment.pdf