Queenstown bed tax proposal will not be replicated

Friday, 13 September 2019

The Queenstown Lakes area has a challenging housing market. (first published September, 2019)

Visitor hotspots around New Zealand should not be expecting to replicate Queenstown's visitor levy if it proceeds, Phil Twyford says.

The Urban Development and Transport Minister, in Queenstown on Friday to address the Chamber of Commerce, said a plan to generate revenue from visitors to pay for infrastructure was a specific solution for the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

'We're designing a bespoke solution for Queenstown because it's exceptional,' he said.

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'We've made it very clear that this is something for Queenstown only.'

This week it was announced government officials had been instructed to help the council prepare and introduce a local bill for a 5 per cent levy on commercial visitor accommodation in the district to Parliament.

Twyford was cautious in his support for the plan.

'We are supportive overall of providing the council here with the means to raise some additional revenue from the visitor economy to contribute to this infrastructure plan. I don't want to pre-judge it.'

It would need the support of a majority in Parliament to become law, he said.

Aerial view of Frankton, Queenstown, where a lot of the new housing has been built.

Minister for Urban Development and Transport Phil Twyford catches a $2 bus from central Queenstown to the airport after presenting to the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce.

Twyford also warned the ratepayers of Queenstown should be putting their hands in their pockets to invest in the community.

However, he acknowledged growth in the small town had created significant challenges.

There are 34 international visitors each year to every resident and the district is New Zealand's least affordable.

The house price to income ratio is at 20:1 when international benchmarks for affordability say it should be about 3:1.

'The median weekly rental in Queenstown is now $710 – out of range for so many people who get up every day to go to work to provide essential services in this community,' Twyford said.

The Special Housing Area programme, which the Government ditched, had worked better at providing affordable houses in the Queenstown Lakes than other parts of New Zealand, he said.

'We are really determined to provide key worker housing so that your firefighters, teachers and council workers and police officers can actually afford with their families to actually live in Queenstown, the community they serve.

'And if we don't fight to achieve that, then we will end up with a virtual gated community where people are forced to commute.'

Service industry workers were 'critically important' to making the economy work, he said.