Suspected death as fire razes house bus
INSIDE THIS WEEK FARMING: PAGE 6 jobs: PAGE 9 sport: Page 10
paGE 2
Young athletes bring home 17 medals 28 Reece Crescent Wanaka ph 03 443 8176 | www.guthriebowron.co.nz
page 11
thewanakasun.co.nz
Thur 25.01.18 - wed 31.01.18
DELIVERED AND FREE
EDITION 854
Submissions scarce
for Airbnb change BUTLER D DANIELLE newsdesk@thewanakasun.co.nz
J
ust four percent of Wanaka’s population has had its say on proposed changes to accommodation rules that could have a knock-on effect for everyone, according to local real estate agent Duncan Good. By this week, Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) had received only 30 public submissions regarding potential changes to residential visitor accommodation including the district’s Airbnb properties. The proposed new rules would mean that resource consents would be required for anyone wishing to host more than five guests if they did not live at the property themselves. The rules would also affect people wishing to rent their entire property as visitor accommodation, allowing up to 28 days of short-term rental a year with no more than three separate lets without a resource consent. The proposals don’t affect anyone with existing resource consents for visitor accommodation. Last week Duncan Good said that everyone should be involved in the process as its ramifications would be “far-reaching”, affecting housing demand and prices. Duncan added that the council needed to be careful not to “turn off the tap” on families and regular visitors that come to town and rent over the holiday periods. QLDC senior communications advisor Rebecca Pitts said that the proposed change in approach was not intended to remove existing visitor accommodation from the district. “We’re not looking to turn off the tap. It’s more like fixing the leaks. It’s aimed at increasing the available housing stock for longer-term rentals and limiting the rapid growth of residential visitor accommodation stock being used for short-term rentals,” she said. Rebecca added that it was “really important” for
people to share their views via a submission as it was the only way they could be formally considered by decision-makers. “One of the challenges that decision-makers will have to address is how best to provide for the expected growth of visitor numbers, some of whom will prefer residential visitor accommodation over commercial hotels. “This could include taking a more enabling approach to residential visitor accommodation in locations such as lakefront properties that are less likely to ever become homes for long-term residents, while at the same time controlling the growth of this activity in residential neighbourhoods,” she said. Wanaka currently houses more than 300 Airbnb properties, which Massey University PhD candidate Stella Pennell found to be “disruptive” when she visited the town in August. “It’s not surprising that tourist towns have a greater amount of visitor accommodation than non-tourist towns and cities,” Stella said. “What is new about this is that Airbnb isn’t visitor accommodation in the commercial or traditional sense. It’s people’s private homes and that in itself is pretty disruptive to the housing market. “There is a lot of insecure work in tourist towns, so to supplement their income people turn to Airbnb. There are legitimate reasons for doing it, but it then makes it hard for people who can’t afford housing. There seems to be a trend in tourist towns of worker displacement because of no affordable housing, and Airbnb is pretty strongly implicated in that.” Members of the public can make submissions online at qldc.govt.nz/proposed-district-planstage-2 or by emailing services@qldc.govt.nz with ‘proposed district plan submission’ as the subject. Submissions can also be made via post and forms can be obtained from the council offices on Ardmore Street or downloaded online. Public submissions close on Friday February 23.
PHOTO: Miles Holden/Red Bull Content Pool
Local athletes Braden Currie (left) and Dougal Allan have won the 2018 Red Bull Defiance, held in Wanaka over the weekend. Full story on page 11.
Boundary lines are indicative only
Albert Town 21 Hikuwai Drive
Wanaka 31 Kirimoko Crescent
Albert Town 19 Wren Street
For Sale by Deadline Private Treaty (unless sold prior) 4pm, Thu 15 Feb 2018, 62 Ardmore St, Wanaka bayleys.co.nz/224229
For Sale by Deadline Private Treaty (will not be sold prior) 4pm, Tue 20 Feb 2018, 62 Ardmore St, Wanaka bayleys.co.nz/224212
For Sale by Deadline Private Treaty (will not be sold prior) 4pm, Thu 15 Feb 2018, 62 Ardmore St, Wanaka bayleys.co.nz/224211
Sharon Donnelly P 0508 DONNELLY
No.
E sharon.donnelly@bayleys.co.nz
MAT ANDREWS REAL ESTATE LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008
RESIDENTIAL
SALESPERSON
NATIONWIDE 2016 / 2017