Affordable housing trust's new 44-home development praised

Queenstown affordable housing trust's new 44-home development praised

A recently-completed affordable housing development near Queenstown is being hailed as a success story for the housing trust that initiated it.

The Shotover Country subdivision, 10km from Queenstown, is home to a 44-house development by the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust (QLCHT). The project is the largest ever undertaken by the Trust, and the largest comprehensive development to date at Shotover Country.

The new homes are now occupied by young families, singles and couples working in Queenstown who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to live there. Houses are a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom properties. Thirty-three of the homes have been sold under the QLCHT’s Shared Ownership programme, while 11 remain in the Trust’s rental portfolio.

Trustee Martin Hawes says QLCHT is proud of its latest milestone, but is acutely aware of the major housing shortage and affordability issues the Queenstown Lakes District faces.

“We’ve helped 44 families into homes at Shotover Country, however, let’s not lose sight of the fact we have a waiting list 10-times that number. We have a lot more work ahead of us.”

He credits Shotover Country subdivision developers Sharyn and Grant Stalker and Queenstown Lakes District Council as being an integral part to making the affordable housing development a reality.

“Without the original landowners transferring the site to QLCHT as part of the plan change process with council, QLCHT’s development at Shotover Country would not exist, and many of the 44 new residents may have left town already,” Hawes says.

Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Jim Boult says the council applauds the work done by the Trust and its efforts to address housing affordability in the district. “We look forward to working with the Trust to enable them to continue their good work in the future,” he says.

The Trust spent $2 million on civil works – creating its own roads, services and titles, before allocating design and build contracts out to three different firms, Breen Construction, Modus Construct and Rilean Construction.

QLCHT executive officer Julie Scott says: “We used three different contractors to mitigate risk, reduce total build time and provide a variety of house designs over the 44 properties. Then we engaged a landscape architect to bring the development together in a cohesive and attractive form.

“We now have a mixed-tenure development, with households signing on to one of our programmes best-suited to their specific needs. Whilst most are young families, we have also assisted a small number of singles and couples who are key workers in our community,” Scott adds.

The Shotover Country development is the third comprehensive affordable housing development the Trust has completed. It is presently building an 11-lot development in Albert Town, Wanaka, which will provide a mixture of tenures, including Shared Ownership, Rent Saver and Affordable Rentals. QLCHT has 430 eligible households on its waiting list.

ENDS

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