Federal Diner owner Brona Parsons said while it was not a new issue, this summer had certainly been more difficult.
She said she had found it extremely hard to find skilled workers, particularly chefs.
"We’ve advertised nationwide and we haven’t got any applicants. There’s just nobody around [who wants the job]. Even for dishwashers and unskilled workers, there’s been nobody."
Ms Parsons said her business relied on employees being travellers on working visas, but has found those people are preferring to find work elsewhere due to the high rents.
"The biggest issue really is the lack of accommodation and the cost of living of Wanaka is deterring people from coming here to work."
"Those on working visas, they don’t want to be spending all their money on rent. They want to work so they can travel."
Yes Photo & Digital manager Steve Worley said he had had difficulty finding workers in the last couple of years, and had been implementing a "Wanaka living wage" for the last 12 months both to attract new workers and keep current ones.
"A couple of years ago we had people coming and going a lot, but that has changed in recent times, so what we do is pay employees above the average wage — a Wanaka living wage. Now we have high-quality staff who want to stay."
He believed the problem was not specific to Wanaka and Queenstown, but was because there were too many jobs nationwide and not enough workers. A solution could be to ease visa restrictions and let more people into the country, he said.
Wanaka Chamber of Commerce chairwoman Bridget Legnavsky said the issue had been raised by many businesses around town, and the chamber was taking steps to find a solution. In the latest Wanaka Business Confidence Survey released in October, almost 50% of respondents identified a lack of long-term housing as the main issue, while a further 25% said short-term accommodation was the main concern.
"It’s evident that housing affordability and supply is a key concern for members and this is an area of concern the chamber has taken the lead on."
Statistics provided by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand showed that mean rent for Wanaka had risen 13% since the fourth quarter of 2016 and the average weekly rent for a three-bedroom home was now $529.
Home & Co director Colleen Topping said rents for three-bedroom homes had increased by about a third since 2015.
"The increases are due to strong demand compared with a limited supply of long-term rental homes.
"More and more people have moved here but the housing stock hasn’t increased at the same pace."
"There are no quiet times. The logical solution seems to be to increase the number of available houses. We currently have over 450 people on our database looking for rentals."
Home & Co currently has only two properties available for rent.
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Comments
The sad sweet irony of Wanaka and Queenstown. How the locals fight against any housing development thereby denying many people from living in those communities. Who do the anti development people think will be pouring their lattes and making their cupcakes?
Mr Worley is partly right in his estimation of people available to fill jobs. Yes, there are a lot of jobs available, but when people are being paid $15 an hour, often in part time jobs, they simply can't afford to take the jobs on offer. I really don't think importing more people to work below the poverty line is the answer.
But then that is the whole point of this article, the minimum wage is no where near a living wage.