A quarter of Queenstown houses sit empty while rental market flatlines

There were 649 new houses built 'above and beyond' the needs of Queenstown's population growth. (Image: BusinessDesk)

Thu, 16 Feb 2023

More than a quarter of all Queenstown-Lakes homes remain unused for most of the year, as the region faces up to a critical undersupply of rental stock.That’s served to hamper the recovery of the district’s labour pool, which data showed would otherwise be back to pre-covid levels.Trade Me property sales director Gavin Lloyd said the site had a 49% drop in rental listings for the 12 months to December 2022.Data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment on rental bonds supported that, showing there were 4,119 tenanted h...

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