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July 20, 2025 3 mins

Queenstown's underlying infrastructure is unable to keep up with the rapidly growing tourism and population numbers.

The town's infrastructure can't cope with international arrivals 28% higher than in 2019, and the population has doubled every 17 years in the last four decades.  

Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust Chief Executive Julie Scott says they're a smaller community who needs a lot of infrastructure they can't afford.  

She says they need the tools to enable them to have an equitable share in how infrastructure is paid for. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Queenstown and its popularity. Issues there back in the news
are growing concern it can't cope with the growth it's got.
I mean, how many times do we have to do
this story? We've been doing this story for like twenty
or thirty years. Haven't we a got tame many pravaline Queenstown.
On the tourism side, they're at twenty eight percent over
COVID and that's compared with the rest of the country
we're in eighty six percent. Then you've got the cost
of actually living there, which is a problem as well.

(00:21):
Julie Scott is the chief executive of Queenstown Lakes Community
Housing Trust and as well as Julie morning.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
How long have you been in.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Queenstown twenty two years? I've been here.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well, you've been here a thousand times, haven't you. I mean,
we've been round around on this Merry go round of
stories before, haven't we. It's Oh, Queenstown's getting a bit
busy or Queenstown's getting a bit expensive. Has anyone actually
in the ensuing year has done anything about it at all?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah? Arguably our council was a leader in this space
in terms of providing solutions for affordable and community housing.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Absolutely and do they.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, they do. So we have this tool called value capture,
which means that the community shares in value uplift that's
created through the rezoning of land.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Why do the council Why are they hated by so
many people? Is it because of the infrastructure in the
road and the fact you can't get anywhere and things
like that.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Oh, I think that's a bit tough to say that
the council is hated by so many people, But certainly
there's a little bit of resentment there from the community
around infrastructure issues. There are some pain points there.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
What's the major issue? Is it the tourist influx or
is it the cost of actually living in Queenstown.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I don't think it's necessarily the tourist influx, and I
don't think that the community has any issues with tourists
per se. It's simply that we don't have the infrastructure
that underlying infrastructure, there's pressure points on the road and wastewater,
et cetera to enable that tourism and those the population
growth that where.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
It is it the rating based problem? You know, small town,
you know, small number of locals comparatively speaking, requiring massive
amounts of infrastructure you can never afford. Is that in
a nutshell the problem.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Absolutely, that's it in a nutshell, and to that we
really need some tools to enable us to have a
more equitable share and how the infrastructure is paid for,
such as a bad tax would be a great example
of how we could spread that.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Those costs, and as central government on board with those
sort of ideas, or as local government battling this by themselves.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Local government has been battling it for a long time.
But look, we remain positive. We're one of three regions
that have been working through a regional deal with government
and that's certainly one of our our asks for this
regional deal.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
I saw some pictures over the weekend of Queenstown. There
seems no snow or were they file pictures? Is it
snowed properly yet?

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, yeah, there's definitely snow up there. All the hills,
all the local mountains are open and something. So yeah,
it's not the head of a season, but there's suddenly
snowed up there to ski.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Good to talk to you duly appreciate it very much.
Julie Scott, who's where the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing crust.
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