When the last housing boom ended in 2008-09, the Government researched how to prevent another excessive boom, Mr English said.
The Government was also identifying where severe housing affordability problems existed, he said.
''New Zealand has a severe housing affordability problem by any international measure. We're not up there with Hong Kong or central London, but then their incomes are vastly higher than ours.
''So on a ratio of house prices to income we're in the top half dozen least-affordable markets in the world.''
While the affordable housing shortage was particularly acute in Auckland, it was a national problem, and Queenstown would ''remember the last housing boom pretty well because whatever boom the country has, Queenstown usually gets it on steroids''.
The Government would work with district councils to decide on ways to make more affordable housing available, he said.
Auckland was an example where the Government and the council had worked on designating where the development of affordable housing could be ''fast-tracked'', he said.
New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, needed 13,000 new houses a year, which was set to rise with the turning around of the migration pattern and the country's economy looking good, he said.
People were looking for homes that did not exist
''So we've got to crank up the building. The kicker in it is: if they [councils] don't do it, the Government will''.
If Queenstown wanted to speed up the development of affordable housing, it could approach the Government to discuss ways to achieve this, he said.
Queenstown's affordable housing problem has been in the spotlight recently, a 10-house affordable housing development proposed for Suffolk St in Arrowtown. The housing is proposed to be on land given to the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust, which told a public meeting in Arrowtown last week it had a long waiting list of people wanting its help.
Mr English also told guests at yesterday's breakfast the Government had provided an extra $40 million for tourism, which was ''the biggest increase in tourism promotion in a long time''.
Speaking to a room containing many people involved in tourism, he said: ''So I hope you know how it should be used, because we haven't figured that out in detail.
''I think the initial intention is focusing around emerging markets - markets where the numbers are growing; where we don't promote much at all. So it's a big opportunity for your local organisations here to influence the way that that money is spent,'' he said.
