Wānaka families secure affordable homes from $472,000

Nine families can call Wānaka home with certainty, as the latest affordable properties in Northlake are completed this month.

The Malvern Road properties – ranging from $472,000 to $568,000 – are the latest to be built within the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust’s (QLCHT) model, which offers a staggered, more affordable approach towards independent home ownership.
 
Six homes will be in the QLCHT’s assisted ownership model – Secure Home – with the remaining three households going into the Trust’s rental programmes.
 
In a statement today, QLCHT chief executive Julie Scott says she is excited to hand over keys for the nine properties in time for Easter.
 
“Whilst we experienced inevitable delays in the build due to supply of materials, we’re stoked for these families to be moving in next month,” Ms Scott says.

“The ability to deliver standalone properties at these price points, has been a collaborative effort with the ongoing support of both the Queenstown Lakes District Council and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s Progressive Home Ownership Fund.”
 
The first of its kind in New Zealand, Secure Home is a programme where people purchase the properties through a 100-year land lease arrangement, with the trust retaining ownership of the land in perpetuity.
 
“Accommodation is a pressing issue in our district, and we have evidence of that, with 150 people on the waiting list in the Upper Clutha area alone,” she says.

“To be able to provide a safe, secure and newly-built home to nine of those families means a lot, because we know it’s not just a house – it’s also providing a level of certainty and the ability to feel settled in the local community.”
 
The QLCHT acquired the land in 2021, with construction on the three and four-bedroom properties commencing in early 2022.
 
“The dwellings have been constructed by Breen Homes, who will move on to building another 28 affordable homes in Hāwea for us, once these Northlake properties are complete."

The QLCHT is a not-for-profit social enterprise created to manage and deliver affordable housing solutions to members of the community who cannot afford it.

Initiated by the QLDC in 2007, the trust is an independent entity operating throughout the district.