Mayoral Housing Affordability Taskforce
The Mayoral Housing Affordability Taskforce was set up in April 2017 by Mayor Jim Boult to investigate new ways of addressing housing affordability in the Queenstown Lakes District.
Chaired by Councillor John MacDonald with membership drawn from a wide range of parties with an interest or involvement in the supply of housing with the district, the taskforce acknowledged that the housing affordability crisis has been one for the whole of Aotearoa New Zealand. However, our district has additional and unique growth and visitor accommodation pressures.
The primary goal for the taskforce was to consider what could be done to address this housing problem, acknowledging that the market continues to fail in delivering but that there was no single solution. A multi-pronged solution was required with recommendations that had strong buy-in from business, developers and the wider community. This can be summarised as follows:
All of our workforce will be able to own or occupy a home in our District at a cost that allows them to live within their means by 2048, with an initial target of 1,000 Community Affordable homes with secure tenure by 2028.
Reports from the Mayoral Housing Taskforce
Meetings & Workshops
Since the taskforce was established that have analysed the ongoing housing situation in the district and made recommendations to bring the district closer to achieving its goal. Regular progress reports are presented to the Council and available on this page. The first of these recommendations to be implemented was the Secure Home programme.
Secure Home Programme
Secure Home is an assisted ownership programme to provide decent and affordable housing, with long-term stability and security in the same way that home ownership does.
Based on a leasehold agreement between the Housing Trust and the household, the Trust retains full ownership of the property and the household purchases the right to occupy that property at the cost of house construction (excluding land). The household pays an annual ground rent which is set well below market value and only ever increases annually with inflation for the period the household remains in the programme. This ensures the initial purchase price (Upfront Payment) and ongoing ground rent remain affordable for the household in perpetuity.
Secure Home is not a rental arrangement. A household in the Secure Home programme has all the benefits and responsibilities any home owner has, except the ability to on-sell the property in the private market.