‘It’s just nuts’: Workers leaving Queenstown in droves

Workers have been forced to leave Queenstown due to a lack of accommodation. Photo / Supplied

Queenstown’s housing crisis is hitting home as a local recruitment agency reports 13 staff it had placed quit their jobs in the first week of this month because they couldn’t find digs.

Those staff — mostly in hospo and construction — are among about 40 over the past three months who’ve been forced to leave town or not even go there, for the same reason, Remarkable People managing director Blair McNaughton says.

“Our [employer] clients are pulling their hair out saying, ‘we need to get these projects finished’ or ‘we need people to clean rooms, serve drinks or wash dishes’, especially with the busy holiday period coming up, and instead of getting more people, we’ve got more people leaving.”

Some had to leave their backpackers to make way for visitors, others had to leave their rental digs which were going into Airbnb, “but they all couldn’t find anywhere else to go”.

Those who had quit had work lined up for the next six or 12 months, McNaughton says, and none was earning only minimum wage.

“It’s just nuts — look at all the staff shortages we’ve got in every industry around town.

“Look, these are people who want to live and work in Queenstown, and it’s the accommodation now, more than the lack of humans, which is really killing us at the moment.

“It’s pretty challenging across the country — we have branches from Auckland to Invercargill — but Queenstown is definitely the hardest.”

‘Tents on lawns’ may be the only option

Employers are providing a lot of benefits, “but literally if these people don’t have somewhere to sleep, how do we expect them to stay in our town?”

Hospo employers, in particular, are wanting to ramp up for summer, McNaughton says, “but I don’t know how they’re going to do it apart from putting tents on people’s lawns, really”.

He notes more businesses are providing staff housing — one hospo group took over a hostel this week — but says that also adds more cost.

McNaughton believes a number of factors have contributed to the problem, including homeowners putting houses on Airbnb, challenges with long-term leasing and just the number of new businesses needing staff.

While acknowledging there’s no silver bullet, he’s calling on “the likes of council and those sort of people to be like, ‘hey, look, here’s the problem, let’s stop talking about it, let’s find some solutions’”.

He suggests Queenstown should look to the example of overseas resorts where councils, for instance, provide purpose-built staff accommodation.

He thinks the strip off Gorge Rd, opposite Ngāi Tahu Property’s Te Pā Tāhuna development, would be ripe for worker housing as it’s handy to the CBD, with employers taking out long-term leases.

“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but if we want Queenstown to still be the jewel in the tourism crown, we need to do something about it.

“If we don’t, we’re affecting our reputation around the world as people will say, ‘don’t go to Queenstown, you can’t go to a restaurant, there’s queues out the door for everything’.”

- Mountain Scene