A proposed housing development near the Queenstown central business district has largely been welcomed in the town.
The Otago Daily Times reported on Saturday it is understood Ngai Tahu Property is in final negotiations to purchase a 4ha site, formerly home to Wakatipu High School, on which up to 350 apartment-style units would be constructed.
About 120 would go to the KiwiBuild programme.
The ODT understands the first homes are targeted for completion in 2022, with the overall development to be finished in 2026.
Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust executive officer Julie Scott said the proposal was "exciting" and believed having a third of the development set aside for KiwiBuild would assist many first-home buyers.
As of Friday there were 574 households on the trust’s waiting list — that had increased from 482 12 months ago.
"With the cap of $650,000 [in KiwiBuild], you can’t get much in Queenstown for [that] at the moment, so that will certainly open up a lot of doors for first-home buyers in the Queenstown area.
"It will certainly be a really good start for a lot of households [but] I don’t think KiwiBuild is the silver bullet to Queenstown’s housing issues."
Queenstown Lakes District Councillor John MacDonald said there was "no doubt" any announcement of housing in the resort was positive, however, he had some questions over the general affordability of the proposed development.
"One of the issues we have is what is really affordable on the kind of income people living in downtown Queenstown earn?
"I just hope they maximise the opportunities that are available to them on the site and that we get a wide range of affordable options."
Mr MacDonald was also the chairman of the Mayoral Housing Taskforce, established by Mayor Jim Boult last April.
It aimed to ensure the district’s workforce would be able to own or occupy a home at a cost which allowed them to live within their means by 2048.
Its initial target was 1000 community affordable homes, with secure tenure, by 2028.The first six houses in the Secure Home programme were being built in Shotover Country and would be completed by July.
Mr MacDonald said while members of the taskforce were "a little bit frustrated at how long it takes to get some of the results out the other end, as in built houses", work continued.
"One of the key parts of that was to get the council to write a proper housing strategy, or update the old Hope (Housing Our People in our Environment) strategy, as it was. That’s been approved and is about to be started."
NZFirst Clutha-Southland chairman Basil Walker, of Queenstown, said it was short-sighted for the Ministry of Education to have disposed of the site and he believed the ministry did not have another site immediately available for a future school. He said the Gorge Rd land should not be used for housing.
"To demolish a valuable school for rental accommodation will not realistically be able to be suggested as affordable housing because of the residual land value and cost of ... replacement infrastructure," he said.
