"It is absolutely dire."
The Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust chairman took over from founding chairman David Cole in April.
The trust, the first of its kind in New Zealand, was set up in 2007 to help people deal with what was then already being described as an affordable-housing crisis in Queenstown.
It now shares ownership of 48 properties with the goal of the householder becoming the independent owner over time, and owns and manages another 13 rental properties.
By year-end, 11 more rental properties and 33 in the shared ownership scheme, all at Shotover Country, will be complete.
The trust has also secured contributions from six of seven approved Special Housing Areas in the Wakatipu.
The only development without an affordable housing component is the first, Bridesdale Farm.
Deals have also been done with the developers of Riverside, in Wanaka, where 11 sections, a mixture of affordable rentals and shared ownership, will be built on with other sections at Kiromoko.
However, it may be some time before many of those contributions are realised.
While Mr Brent, a founding trustee, believes it has done a "really good job to date", in the past 18 months the trust has been overtaken by the market and demand.
And with 350 families on the waiting list, it is now thinking outside the square to find solutions.
When the trust’s shared ownership model was established, a median-priced home was about $500,000.
"We can afford to put $100,000 in and a punter can come up with $400,000.
"They are still putting in $400,000 ... but there’s no way the trust can commit [$700,000] equity into a property [at present market rates]."
It was now looking at buying or entering joint ventures on land to build its own stock.
Under that scenario, a landowner could allow the trust to build properties, with the land put into the shared ownership model.
"If the land’s worth $200,000 and we put a $400,000 house on there, rather than pay the $200,000 up front, that stays on the title and then gets bought out down the track ... the home owner would buy them out or ... the whole thing would be sold."
The focus for the trust over the next two to five years would be creating a "substantial rental portfolio" in the district.
In July, results of an independent market survey of residential Queenstown renters showed 95% of respondents aspired to own a home but 86% expected housing costs to be a barrier to their long-term commitment to the resort.
Of more than 500 renters completing the survey, 40% were experiencing "housing stress" and 80% said the quality of housing did not compare favourably with other places.
Mr Brent said part of the trust’s focus was to ensure critical members of the community could find good-quality, secure accommodation and remain in the area.
"The one thing that people really struggle with the trust is what we’re actually set up to do. We’re not actually ... here to solve affordable housing or price issues.
"Where to come up with solutions to allow low and middle-income workers who want to come to town and commit to Queenstown the ability ... to stay here.
"Teachers, nurses, policemen — the people we need in a community.‘‘Our job is not to try and help people get on the property ladder and make money out of it.
"We seem to cop a bit of flak ... people seem to think we’re in this game to make everybody rich, and we’re not."
