Speaking during public forum at a Queenstown Lakes District Council meeting earlier this year, Salvation Army community worker Hine Marchand said there was a massive gap between those who qualified for assistance from the Queenstown Lakes Community Trust and those who could afford to buy a property — Special Housing Area (SHA) or otherwise.
She gave as an example a couple who did not qualify for trust assistance, but also could not afford to buy a home.
One was an assistant manager who worked 30 hours a week and earned $20 an hour.
The other was a manager, who earned $25 an hour and worked 70 hours a week, but the bank could only take into account 40 of those hours.
Mrs Marchand said the couple would get $30,000 between them from KiwiSaver and $10,000 each from the Government.
But that was conditional on them buying a pre-existing home for between $450,000 and $500,000.
An online search this week for properties for sale in the Queenstown area in that price range showed 17 listings: a three-bedroom home in Kingston for $480,000; a two-bed cottage, also in Kingston (inquiries over $385,000); a three-bedroom home in Athol ($425,000); a two-bedroom apartment in Goldfield Heights, being sold by deadline sale; seven apartments for sale in developments under construction; four sections at Jacks Point; one section in Glenorchy; and an apartment with a limit of 28 days annual use by the owner.
Mrs Marchand said if the couple did not buy a pre-existing house in that price range, they would be eligible for the money from KiwiSaver.
"If they buy a house around the market price — $700,000 to $800,000 ... they will need $140,000."
They paid $650 a week to rent a "three-bedroom house which wouldn’t pass a Wof [warrant of fitness]", and earned too much to qualify for assistance from the housing trust, but could not afford to buy a home on their own.
"Whilst the housing trust is amazing ... these guys are on a living wage in Queenstown [and] they’re not able to get into a home at all in Queenstown."
Queenstown Lakes district councillor and Mayoral Housing Taskforce chairman John MacDonald is acutely aware of the situation.
"People who are working here can’t possibly save for a deposit.‘‘It’s compounded by the loan-to-value ratios and the 20% deposit you need to buy a house.
"We heard of a young couple who wanted to live at Jacks Point — he was an airline pilot; she might have been a teacher.
"They earned good money — they should be able to afford a decent place ... They just couldn’t do it — a $1.2million, $1.4million property and you have to front up with 20% in cash."
Mr MacDonald said the task force had agreed "affordable" in the Queenstown Lakes context meant less than 35% of the gross household income being spent on mortgage or rent.
In today’s market, that was a "real problem", Mr MacDonald said.
"And to compound the problem, our median household’s income in Queenstown is lower than the country’s [median]."
The latest figures from interest.co.nz show the national household income median is $87,508.
In the Queenstown Lakes area the median is $72,497.
"A lot of our people don’t get paid that well, which makes the equations of figuring out what’s affordable and what’s not affordable even tougher," Mr MacDonald said.
"The realities are if you do the sort of figures that we look at, as to what is affordable, mortgage-wise you’re down around $350,000 to $400,000.
"That’s posed us with the housing taskforce some real tough questions, really.
"There’s nothing on the market at that level here, so we’ve had to dream up a way of getting around that."
