A joint council assessment of the supply of land for housing and business in this district has identified a “staggering” deficit of supply in the short term.

The Housing and Business Capacity Assessment (HBA) 2025 report, from Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) in partnership with Otago Regional Council (ORC), was considered by QLDC at its final council meeting for the triennium last week.

Its key findings show an expected surplus of dwelling supply in the medium and long term (10 to 30 years) - due to increased “infrastructure investment and development opportunity within the planning frameworks”, but in the short term (three years) net shortfalls in residential dwelling and in the medium and long terms in business land are predicted - to be constrained by infrastructure limitations, primarily in Whakatipu.

The Wānaka Ward shows a small surplus of 180 dwellings, but with projected shortfalls in Wānaka’s township - also primarily as a result of infrastructure capacity limitations.

“The amount of infrastructure deficit and shortfall is absolutely staggering,” Wānaka councillor Quentin Smith said.

“There is a crisis of infrastructure in achieving those outcomes we approved in the last meeting… I’m not quite sure where we’ve departed in the resource management world from aligning resource and management and resource management. I just can’t grasp the extent to which we’ve overzoned relating to [the] resource available to us to provide the infrastructure.”

He used growth and the impact on infrastructure in Lake Hāwea as an example, and said the issue would be an important one for the incoming council.

Councillor Quentin Smith said the report reveals a “crisis of infrastructure”.

QLDC planning and development general manager Dave Wallace said the HBA provides a crucial resource for understanding how planning and infrastructure decisions will affect future land availability, ultimately helping to guide sustainable growth and development in the district.

“We’re expecting population in the Queenstown Lakes District to grow by 80 percent and reach 97,500 over the next 30 years, which means more housing is needed, more businesses to support those residents, and more infrastructure required to service their needs,” Dave said.

“The HBA highlights our current infrastructure constraints and future shortfalls in residential, commercial, and industrial land, ultimately guiding proactive planning decisions and identifying what we’ll need more of to continue growing well as a district.”

The HBA adopts a high growth scenario to set housing bottom lines, setting out a requirement for an additional 27,100 new dwellings in the district over the next 30 years, with 9,100 required by 2033 and a further 18,000 by 2053.

While substantial plan-enabled housing capacity already exists in the district, the HBA identifies infrastructure limitations that result in a district-wide shortfall of approximately 1,000 dwellings in the short term, especially in the Whakatipu.

A surplus of dwellings is expected in the medium and long term as investment planned for infrastructure and development opportunities increase.

Land for business is also projected to grow strongly over the next 30 years, but recent zoning changes and further infrastructure constraints show more capacity is required for retail and commercial operations, most notably 36 hectares of industrial land in the long term.

Council said it will now explore alternative funding and financing tools to accelerate infrastructure delivery in priority development areas, in addition to developing an updated Spatial Plan which will help identify the location of additional land to meet demand. 

PHOTOS: Wānaka App